Hello,

As a relatively new (5 years this Spring) beekeeper, I've read many 
hundreds of dollars of books.  I happen to know to of the beekeepers 
mentioned in the book, since I live in between them. Their stories are 
interesting. I found the entire book interesting, however I saw that it 
is slanted all against pesticides. I did not read of any allowances for 
diseases of any kind, of nutritional concerns, of weather issues (too 
wet, too dry, too hot, too cold), crowded conditions (think 
military--more soldiers die of illness and accidents, than from battle 
wounds), nor of any other possibilities for the CCD catastrophe. I did 
follow the writer's thesis, but wished he would have written with less 
sensationalism.

I have been very patient with waiting for what the Penn State bee 
researchers and others (some beekeepers on this list participate with 
their own research) have come up with in the past two years. My patience 
has been slowly rewarded. It is the amounts of contaminants in the brood 
comb, the amount of contaminants in the newly acquired pollen, the 
stresses of migratory beekeeping, the new viruses and the cross over of 
diseases from other kinds of bees that I find most intriguing. 

My thoughts on pesticides is that, though I don't use them on my fields 
or in my colonies, they are best used sparingly in IPM practices by IPM 
specialists. If I ever needed to use chemicals, I would very carefully 
weigh out the benefits vs. the negatives before any application.

Since I have worked in health care for 41 years, my trust in big 
pharmaceuticals, big hospitals, and modern health care is under 50%. 
There are some great things happening in the health care field, that is 
for sure. But is the outcome equal to society's costs? The overuse of 
antibiotics in health care over decades has created bad nasty germs. Us 
beekeepers will find that in the future "clean" medical honey will be 
increasingly used for healing treacherous nasty wounds and for 
prevention of those wounds. The physicians where I work have disclaimed 
the use of honey in wound healing as "folk medicine."

In comparison, how has the use of chemicals (antibiotics, pesticides, 
etc) in the care of bees helped rid the bees of their problems. It 
hasn't. It has compounded the problems and issues. So here we are now 
discussing them.

Back to the book. It presented only one side of the story about the 
demise of bees. I am glad I read it.

Alf





Bob Harrison wrote:
> Alden said:
>>>    It sounds right Mike, but my faith is weak. Can we also apply the 
>>> same confidence to pharmacology?
> Again I suggest all beekeepers get a copy of "A Spring Without Bees " by
> Michael Schacker and read carefully.  Michael
> has spent countless weeks researching the facts and arranging in an 
> easy to
> read way.
>
>

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