Dee Lusby writes:
>Amazing how the broodnest with proper sized comb
>acts like a living liver cleaning up disease and parasisitc
>mite problems with the help of the workers at this period
>of time each year

I know that Dee understands that this analogy can be pushed further.  After
30 years of analyzing chemicals inside beehives throughout the U.S., we
well understand that the wax combs reflect the chemical environment, not
only chemicals used inside the hive, but also those from the outside
environment -- agri-chemicals, industrial pollutants, emissions from
vehicle exhausts, etc.

Much of that ends up in wax.  Recently, a comment was made on this list
that USDA researchers had new information about mite treatment residues in
combs and mite resistance, and were going to recommend rotating brood combs
into the honey supers.

USDA is just catching up with the sampling technologies that we've used for
10 years -- amazing what you find in a beehive with new generation, more
sensitive instrumentation.

Ok, I hope that the comment about a recommendation for moving frames was in
error.  Many of these chemicals will last for extraordinarily long times
when sorbed into wax.  Moving 'contaminated' brood frames into the honey
supers won't necessarily 'clean' them up.  You will get some dilution and
dispersion, due to bees rebuilding part of the cells with new wax, and
depending on how the chemicals partition, you may export some into your honey.

In terms of developing resistance, this should really speed that process
up.   Spread the chemical out in more dilute form throughout the hive.  Not
a tactic that I would employ.

Cheers

Jerry

P.S.  If you want a quick overview of chemicals in beehives, run down a
copy of the following book:

Honey Bees: Estimating the Environmental Impact of Chemicals
James DeVillers and Minh-Ha Pham-Deleque
Taylor and Francis, London and New York
2002

Contains 332 pages on this topic and issues like Imadacloprid, Transgenic
materials, etc.

In this book, we published our findings for Volatile and Semi-Volatile
Organic Compounds in the Air inside beehives located in Montana and north
of Baltimore, Maryland.  Most of the nastiest chemicals are
industrial/urban, with a few military unique compounds due to our work at
Aberdeen Proving Ground.

I did a fast count,  we produced 12 pages of fine print tables listing
chemicals found -- and we weren't looking for miticides.

In other technical reports, we itemize concentrations of trace elements and
heavy metals, trace quantities of radio-active materials, and lots of
pesticide residues found in these same colonies  (~ 80-120 colonies per
year, 3-4 sampling periods per year, wide spectrum chemical sweeps looking
at chemicals in/on bees, pollen, and the atmospheres inside beehives.

Our organics chapter is:

Smith, G.C., J.J. Bromenshenk, D.C. Jones, and G.H. Alnasser.  Chapter
2  Volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in beehive atmospheres.

Finally, I suggest getting a library copy -  the book is in limited
distribution and pricey.  We got 1 free copy, had to order more, so I know
what it costs.

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