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Date: | Sun, 10 Jun 2012 15:37:31 -0400 |
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You were doing good Jerry but you lost me here? Kill your own bees in hopes
of being paid by big Ag? Really! Not what I would recommend a beekeeper to
bet the farm on!
I agree with you - this would be extreme, and a bad gamble.
Unfortunately, I've been around 40 years. Remember, I spent nearly 30
years studying bees and pollution.
In legal cases involving industrial pollution and at least one pesticide
event, I've seen a few instances of this - there are crooks in all
professions.
Most beekeepers are hard working, honest people. But I'm sorry to say
that I've seen a few bad apples. Most value their bees enough not to do this,
even if they thought that a company or the government would give them a
monetary settlement.
What I've seen is efforts to either help the case along - Beekeeper may
have had a legitimate case, but then decides to HELP beef up the argument - a
few affected colonies or a few apiaries may not be enough, let's be sure
the investigators find it by poisoning more colonies; OR - the beekeeper
screws up in his/her management, tries to direct the investigation to
pesticides to deflect the attention from PPB.
This seems to have become more common since many states have reduced or
eliminated funding for apicultural inspectors. I've met some that wouldn't
know a pesticide kill from varroa mite or paralysis viruses or other
factors. Some states like FL, CA, my own state, and others still have
knowledgeable inspectors, but some have folks that barely know the difference between
a bee and a wasp.
I've even seen a company employee try to HELP out his employer by claiming
that company hives (set up by the company to disprove a kill from the
arsenic released by their smelter - which then sustained a big kill) were
poisoned by someone leaving bottles of syrup laced with arsenic in the yard. (I
have the court documents for this one).
So, I'm glad you called me on this - its an outlier, but its been done.
Jerry
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