> I remember 50 of my father's hives dead from pesticide on alfalfa seed. Not a pretty sight

Hi all

I am old enough to remember beekeeping in the 1970s. I was acquainted with a lot of people who kept bees in the alfalfa fields of the Imperial Valley. One told me that summer was a race to get honey before the bees were killed by insecticides. Many of these guys received huge payments from the government, which thought it was easier to pay for dead bees than to regulate pesticides. One of the largest beekeepers (6000+ hives) told me he never reported bee kills from spray because despite losing the field force, the colonies seldom died. He told me that many people got credit for the same empty hives year after year. It wasn't that he objected to government handouts, though, because he became one of the largest beneficiaries of the honey loan program. It always made me sick to think about all of that top quality sage and buckwheat honey being forfeited to the government to be given away, or maybe it's still sitting in warehouses in Compton. Talk about a tanged web!

Pete B

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