At 04:47 PM 1/19/99 -0700, you wrote:
>I received an inquiry about beekeepers using iodine crystals.  I seem to
>remember some reports of dosing water with minerals, etc; but I can't seem
>to find any mention of the use of iodine in current day beekeeping in the U.S.
 
Hi Jerry, & Beekeeper Friends,
 
Beekeepers this area for several years experimented with pure iodine
crystals added in micro amounts to bee diets. I remember this as an attempt
to find something that would be effective in treating chalk brood but it
did not work out. I also remember pure iodine as a toxin so care should be
given in any work with it.
 
Prior to that for many years beekeepers here, myself included, use iodized
salt and sulfa for prevention of AFB. A few table spoons were pored into
the entrance of the hive or piled on the brood combs.
 
The down side of tilting the hive back and poring a few ounces in was after
a few seasons the nails in the bottom boards would rust off and when
attempts were made to move the hive the bottom board would not be loaded
with the hive. It may have prevented a few diseased hive but the
accelerated depreciation on the metal parts of the hive was a greater
burden then the disease for migratory beekeepers who move their hives
several times a year onto all kinds of soil including types that hold the
hive fast to the ground as the earth spins around the sun.
 
>Something rings a bell, but I can't place it.  Any comments?
 
A few beekeepers have tried to fortify liquid sugar diets by the additions
of trace minerals such as are sold as electrolytes for animals under stress
in feed lots after trucking from pasture to pasture. As the cost was/is
cheep I would judge nothing positive could be measured by the beekeepers
and as far as I know few or no beekeepers are doing this today.
 
The acceptance by bees of salt or the use of salt is directly related to
what occurs naturally. Coastal bees seldom are attracted to salt, but the
same bees moved 50 to 100 miles away from the coast to the Valley or the
mountains will seek it out from natural sources such as minerals in soil,
water, or even from salt blocks, natural salt licks, and also cattle or
animal by-products that one steps in if not careful down on the farm.
 
I have actually had them try to collect body salt on a hot sweaty day by
landing on my hands and taking a bite out of the valley at the base of my
fingers. At first blush one would think they have been stung but close
observation is the bees will/are actually taking a bite and it hurts on
sensitive skin.
 
I don't know how many times I have been entertained by the bees crawling up
to a more personal area of a man's anatomy and taking a bite from a
inspecting new or old bee helper and seeing them drop their pants looking
for the bee and non existence bee sting. Its always amazing that more times
then not the victim does not even try to get out of the bee yard before
removing the deadly offender and more times then not they crush the hapless
bee and do get stung and marvel how that bee stung them twice.
 
Chow, the OLd Drone
http://beenet.com
 
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