In a message dated 6/19/2012 3:50:12 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
_http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/honey-war-sting-feared-in-beehive
-poisonings-20120619-20m54.html_
(http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/honey-war-sting-feared-in-beehive-poisonings-20120619-20m54.html)
I will be very interested in seeing the analytical results for pesticides.
Big piles of dead bees certainly look like poisoning. The article says
analyses results are pending, so as of yet, there's no data to show that it
is pesticides, whether deliberate or accidental poisoning.
If someone set out to do this, they really had a grudge to search for and
find the isolated apiaries. As I remember, the topography of much of New
Zealand works against easy spotting of locations.
Although not common, this could be a pest/disease problem or a
contamination problem originating in the bee operation.
I hope the samples are being examined for contaminants other than
pesticides, as well as bee pests and disease, even if any or all of these possible
causes appear to be a remote possibility.
Depending on the distribution of locations, this might even be an
industrial pollution problem - such as affected locations being downwind from a
smelter or chem plant. We had some big bee kills in MT some years ago,
before the smelters closed.
When the tie between affected colonies is OWNERSHIP, one also has to
consider something being spread through the operation as a result of moving bees
and/or equipment such as a contaminant in the beekeeper's equipment (e.g,
HMF in high fructose corn syrup - which I saw in two US operations, or
something spilled and released in a warehouse or honey processing plant (say a
cleaner)), or something that is infective, like acute paralysis virus.
All affected hives in one operation, under one ownership, but at different
locations points to 1) deliberate targeting and poisoning, as the article
implies, 2) something distributed from a source (e.g., emissions from a
smokestack, runoff from a mining operation), or 3) something contagious or
being distributed (probably inadvertently) by the beekeeper.
I hate to think that someone would go this far in terms of harming
another beekeeper - if that happened, I hope they find and punish the offender.
And, maybe the beekeeper can get some damages. IF it is something, else,
hope its resolved, so others can avoid the same.
Jerry
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