On Tue, 25 Apr 1995, Jerry J Bromenshenk wrote:
 
> Okay, as to iron and rust.  Bees don't use iron to transport oxygen like
> mammals, they use copper.  So, they probably don't need lots of iron.
> Like any element, bees, mammals, people, have more or less fixed tolerance
> ranges.  Within the tolerance range, the body can probably regulate the levels in tissues
> via  a variety of mechanisms, such as excreting excessive amounts.
> Elements like iron generally have to be present at some minimal level for
> healthly bees, but too much is not necessarily better or good.
>
> Is rust harmful?  If it is, lots of bees are exposed.  You certainly are
> not the only beekeeper to use rusty pails, tanks, etc.  Many years ago in
> central Europe, beekeepers trying to keep bees alive near aluminum
> smelters fed bees iron (often by simply using rusty buckets)to mitigate
> the lethal effects of too much fluoride.  Did it work??? Who knows, the
> literature claims that it did, but I have never tested this notion.
<etc.>
 
Thanks for the comments.  They more or less confirm my own thoughts, but
I am wanting to be sure that I am not poisoning the bees if the water is
a little orange once and a while when my pump acts up.
 
You mention fluoride.  That is an other interesting topic, because we are
looking at hooking up to a local municipal supply that has sufficiently
high fluoride that drinking water for children has to be filtered for
flurides to preven tooth discoloration.
 
Would these levels have effects on bees?  The water in syrup is only a
small portion oif the total water used by the bees at most times of the
year.
 
I'd be interested in finding toxicity levels for various chemicals.  I
seem to remember a chart of mineral tolerances somewhere when I was
researching mineral supplementation.
 
A fellow in the north was recommending adding animal salts to the syrup to
augment minerals for bees and I was playing with this a few years back.  I
decided I didn't know enough to reach any conclusions on the matter and
discontinued for fear of poisoning the critters.
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                        VE6CFK
Rural Route One   Swalwell   Alberta   Canada  T0M 1Y0
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Virtual Art Gallery: http://www.cuug.ab.ca:8001/~dicka
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