To Bill and Bob and anyone

Bill, it sounds like you have a much more meaningful state bee
program in the NE then we have here in Mn. In fact the Mn Honey
Producers Association has asked the state to essentially disband the
state program since it is underfunded and basically useless..
Currently we have a couple of seasonal inspectors who do nothing but
look for foulbrood scale when hives are shipped out of state.  We have
30 commercial migratory beekeepers in the state.  There appears to
be no call for bees to be shipped into the state for any pollination work.

So why not close the border? I don't see the long term economic
benefits from keeping 2-3 dozen outfits in business while the potential
for disruption to the sideliner & hobby side is great.

Why should I and others not hold the state ag peoples feet to the fire to
uphold laws they have on the books to keep invasive pests like
Varrora , AHB and SHB out of the state?

Many of the migratory beekeepers here are good people and even
better beekeepers . I have no axe to grind and feel bad to suggest we
should shut them out of the state. I just can't go on blind faith that
everything will work out fine in a system the appears to have no
oversight and no plan.

Like I said before beekeepers are always on overload during the
summer.  Why should I beleive that the migratory guys will be diligent
in their inspecations when they have 1000's of hives, high fuel prices
and little time? Yeh like I bet most migratory folks do mite drop tests
before they treat right? Yeh sure.

I do have history to look at as a predictor and I see mites and SHB
spread over North America with the help of migratory beekeepers. We
( as beekeepers) have no real AHB plan in place as an industry and
here in Mn no credible oversight so yes I'm damn worried.

I guess I'm suggesting a national quarrantine and why not? Is this not
standard practice in the farm animal industry? Would we not expect
our fed and state governments to act swiftly and decisvely if a pest or
disease was on our doorstep?

Maybe we can keep avian bird flu contained by just asking poultry
producers to please check your chickens? That would nice for the
producers right.....but the big picture would not be addressed.

I see a lot of reluctance to take ownership of  this issue by the bee
industry . Let me suggest that if there was a national quarrantine put in
place and no hives rolled anywhere that some real ideas might come
forth and some kind of mitigation plan put in place that has a chance
of succeeding.

I 'd feel better about giving that a chance then rolling the dice in the
current free for all that is taking place.

Someone please tell me how you would explain to John or Jane Doe
Public why its not completely crazy to have large quantities of colonies
moving around the country some of which are loaded with AHB
genetics and we have no way to know  how many and where they are
going. And our plan is to have every beekeeper looking for AHB even
though its hard to tell without DNA analysis a hot bee from an AHB.

Sounds like a joke to me and the only reason its going on is that
beekeeping is flying under the fed and state and public radar and
nobody gives a rip what we are doing for now.........

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