Cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops grow in the U.S.  Many
of these inorganics accumulate in cotton seed.  Some organic farming
standards recommend that you not use the meal as a soil amendment because
of this pesticide accumulation.  I would suspect that if there is anything
to this standard it means that the meal is not exactly safe for any type of
consumption.  The logic would therefore seem that it is not necessarily
safe for bee consumption.  It could also introduce inorganics into your
honey flow.  I have never seem any research that confirms this position so
cannot say for a fact that this would happen.  Personally, I would not use
CSM unless it was grown by an certified organic farm.  Short of this I
would keep it hidden (as you know though those bees are pretty crafty
little gals in finding pollen and nectar so I suspect you would have to
hide it inside a closed building to avoid them finding it - although they
might still find it).  Good luck!  Tim
------------------------------
 
At 12:31 PM 1/30/98 -0700, you wrote:
>Can Cotton Seed Meal cause problems for my bees?  We feed cattle and have
>buckets and troughs with meal in them and the bees on warm days go crazy
>collecting the dust.  Should I try and keep exposed CSM hidden or cleaned
>up.  I remember that CSM has gossipol in it, is this toxic to bees?
>Thanks in advance.
>
>
>Brett D. Bannon
>Folsom, NM  USA
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