[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask]) writes:
"... he was getting ready to plant the field around us and it rained and
he couldn’t plant for a day. So when he got around to planting which was on
(April) the twelfth, there was frost that morning, the ground was wet so I
said, we’re in good shape we aren’t going to have any problems. Well he
planted it and within an hour and a half we had bees coming out the front of
our hives. And I don’t know how many of you are beekeepers but bees can’t
maintain flight if they can’t maintain a fifty eight degree body
temperature. So at freezing, they don’t even bother coming out of the hive. So the
bees started coming out and dying and the only thing that would make sense is
that the poison that was on the corn became airborne and floated over
across the bee yard. ….They were super strong at that time, we fed them three
pounds of pollen and they’d had two feedings of syrup because we were
trying to get em in shape for our queen breeding operation...."
The problem here is that it not only is anecdotal, but that it doesn't fit
common sense. It rained, ground was wet, frost on the ground, yet when the
field was planted the bees came out and died? It seems from this
statement that it was too cold for the bees to fly and forage. And too wet for
dust. So how did anything from the planting reach and get INTO the hive?
I'd have looked for high mite titers and other pathogens, as well as
testing to document any possible pesticide residues. What were the results of
sampling, analysis?
In MT, when the tracheal and then the varroa mites first appeared, in the
spring, when the food resource and weather suddenly changed from good to
cold, wet - we got bees marching out of hives and dying in front. This
wasn't uncommon, and the bees were always loaded with mites. I also had
colonies in tunnels that did the same when mite levels got high.
One has to be careful about correlative associations - and yes, I do
believe that dust during planting can be a problem, but where's the dust here?
I imagine there could have been a lightening storm when it rained before
the death march. Did the lightening cause the loss?
Jerry
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