-- Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I am slated to do a talk next month on the subject of keeping bees
without chemicals, to the NY association.

hi peter.  there are a number of conferences/meeting upcoming that are based around keeping bees without chemicals.  the 3 day nebraska state conference is coming up in november (registration deadline is november 14!), the organic conference in arizona in february, and apparantly this is also the theme for the eas conference in 2009 in new york state.  i'm not privy to the speaker list for eas (nor have i seen an official announcement), but the other two events have speakers that are successfully keeping bees without chemicals.  i would be remiss if i didn't suggest that if one is interested in keeping bees without chemicals, one should probably think about attending (or watching the videos of) one of these upcoming events.  i'm sure your perspective is interesting and valid...but you clearly (from this post) don't advocate this thing that you are giving a talk about...one should at least look at the other side of the coin, imho.

>This being said, I would recommend using terramycin... The presence
of small amounts of terramycin in the brood nest poses no real risk to
you or your bees.

given the importance of the culture of microorganisms in the hive, i find this hard to believe.  certainly terramycin kills bacteria (some of which is beneficial or even necessary).  certainly killing those bacteria allow the yeast populations to rise sharply (as some bacteria produce substances that keep the yeasts in check.  certainly some microorganisms produce essential nutrients for the bees, and create an environment hospitable for other microogranisms (some of which are beneficial/necessary and produce vital nutrients)......it's hard to imagine that tossing an antibiotic into the mix poses no real risks to this integrated system.

>Taking aspirin to prevent headaches is certainly a dumb idea but taking aspirin to prevent heart disease is not.

absolutely true for humans (where we treasure the life and identity of the individual...prolonging an existing life seems to be one of our highest ideals.  when one is breeding bees (either commercially, or simply by letting one's bees and splits make their own queens), one must look at the long term...the next generation.  treating to prevent disease or to mask symptoms of disease only makes selection for disease resistance impossible.  human health care and sound breeding practices are not equivilent.

wrt what randy said about requeening rather than letting hives die....i've thought a lot about this.  the problem is (as i see it) sometimes hives start good and end weak...sometimes the other way around....a weak hive can turn around and leapfrog over others.  you never really know what is going to happen.  the other thing that occurs to me is that if the microorganism culture is as important as it seems to be, we probably can't always distinguish between good genetics and a good culture.  requeening changes genetics, and it might influence some of what happens wrt microorganisms...but it certainly isn't the equivalent in this regard (the specific makeup of the microorganism culture) as making a split from a strong survivor hive.

deknow

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