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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Christina Wahl <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 8 Jul 2015 22:10:53 +0000
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I agree with Jim's recent comments on this subject.  "Ground truthing" vis-a-vis neonics, should not be limited to just numbers of surviving hives, but also consider yield and vigor.  As has been posted here many times, the canola hives in Canada are "poster children" indicating that neonics are great at achieving the goal of balancing crop production and bee health (?), but I have noticed that other ecosystems and other crop areas are not so happy based on beekeeper reports.  One size does not fit all (think curcubits, apples, blueberries, others...).  Let's accept that canola bees in Canada are happy.  Some on this list in the midwest USA say there's no neonic problem there.  OK, while that counts as hearsay (no published data AFAIK), I will accept that some beekeepers in the midwest are happy with their bees and the agriculture around their bees.

Bees are subject to a number of stressors.  Each environment presents a different "titer" of those stressors.  They include:

Disease
Lack of adequate forage
Overcrowding
Chemicals that affect their physiology (or outright kill them)
Weather
Bad beekeeping

....and more.

The total stress factor will determine whether or not a hive thrives.  When I started posting to this list, I was wondering whether or not a mathematical formula could be derived that would help us figure out what that "stress quotient" is.  If we knew how to do that, we could determine (maybe) how likely it is that a hive in a given environment with a known load of pathogens will survive.  I wish I were a good mathematician, but I'm not.  And I can't do statistics at the level required for this problem.  But I sure would like to help somebody who's better at this than I am!

Christina

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