--- Brian Fredericksen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I live in Minnesota and I am wondering why all of
> the states
> non-migratory beekeepers do not put pressure on the
> State Ag Dept to
> put an end to migratory beekeeping in this state.

Up until this last year Alabama had a prohibition
against bringing in any bees on the comb into the
state.  At this time we have small hive beetles, both
kinds of mites, AFB, and have trapped the Africanized
bee around the Bay of Mobile.  Packages and caged bees
have had to be inspected and found disease and pest
free (free of mites?  Really!).  The restriction did
not prevent the invasion of the pests.  Don't think it
even slowed them down very much.

It just prevented our commercial beekeepers from going
out of state, making some money in pollination, and
then bringing their own hives back in state.  Didn't
we do something of the same thing before WWII?  Those
who don't study history are doomed to repeat it.
Don't mean to inflamitory.  I am not even a sideliner
yet, but I think we need to be visionary as to what
the future holds.  We need to be proactive, not
reactive.  Now with all these platitudes, as a
beekeeping community, lets work together in a national
sense.  I am told there is a strain of Bacillis
Thurengis which is just as deadly to the varroa mite
as chems have been in the past, just not quite as
quick in action.  The bacillis takes a couple of weeks
to do its job as apposed to days with the chems.  All
that is needed is a company to start production of the
bacillis.  Supposedly the USDA has already approved
its use as a control for varroa.  Why hasn't a company
jumped on this?  High start-up costs and minimal
return.  You infect one hive and drifting bees infect
all the hives in the bee yard and for a couple of
miles around.  The bacillis persists for months,
reinfecting any mites that might come into the
infected hives from drifting bees from other areas.
Source of info, state bee inspector at Alabama state
beekeepers' meeting this month.

Hope I didn't burn anyone's backside, that wasn't the
purpose of this posting.  We now live in a world
community and we need to concern ourselves not only
with our own problems but also with the problems of
our neighbors.  Like it or not, if those problems are
not addressed, they will become our problems.

Mike in lower Alabama






__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com

-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and  other info ---