FAB>From: Faith Andrews Bedford <[log in to unmask]> >Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 13:12:40 -0400 >Subject: Re: Foulbrood FAB>I was undert the impression that any hive with AFB had to reported to a sta >bee inspector, the bees killed and the hives either burned, scorched or >treated in a "gas" chamber. Am I wrong? Is that info outddated? Hi Faith, Many states and countries do still have old laws on the books as you describe. It may well bee that their laws are out dated, and not the information as you remember it. A few states no longer use the AFB laws to regulate beekeeping as many once did, and the old slash and burn technique is no longer the beekeeping practice when a single cell of AFB is found or a mite in most bee outfits. The states that are so to speak deregulated, some officially some unofficially, because they have come to realize that the health of the honeybee is the beekeepers responsibility and not the governments and they can no longer devote man power and money to provide a service that we have been doing for ourselves from the year one anyway and a service that is readily available outside of the regulatory community if any individual beekeepers cannot do his own. Beekeeping regulation is in the same class as all "blue laws", and if the people in any area can do without buying meat on Sunday's its none of my business, the same if one area is doing well with having someone from the government help them with their bee health problems, more power to them. My own experience with government is that what starts out as help usually ends up as interference, and that to change a bad law is much harder then to pass one in the first place. I know of no bee law's or lack of bee law's that has made any difference in the actual health of our bees that are prone to get anything and everything that is said to be bad in the bee world be it disease, pest, or predators all which have no respect for the written law. Maybe it is one of nature's or God's law's that "honeybees and their keepers shall bee tested"... Who are those four horseman I see riding through my bee yards anyway? In the past one was the bee inspector for sure, with deregulation in California it is seldom the case today. And yes we still have honeybees, both in the hive and in the wild, and yes they do have disease, pests, and predators, but beekeepers may be the one's who are suffering the most as the value of honey slides and not because of any problem with their bees other then the increasing costs of keeping them alive and well from the end of one bee season to another. ttul, the OLd Drone (c) Permission is granted to freely copy this document in any form, or to print for any use. (w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk. --- ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ Imker, Bienenzuechter and Bienenvater