Apiary Inspection?  One word - why?

What value do mere visual inspections provide, given that foulbrood is no
longer that big an issue?

The only practical value visual inspections can provide is to detect/control
obvious AFB. No one has ever shown any tangible value beyond that, and there
just isn't as much AFB around anymore.  The promise of "field test kits" is
still a mere promise, and quick-turn-around lab tests haven't appeared at
the state level for inspectors to leverage.

If Pete asked the catalog houses for until sales numbers on AFB test kits
and antibiotics for his article, they'd show a drop-off in sales since the
mid-2000s, despite the short-lived increase in the number of beekeepers in
the mid-2000s due to the "Silence of the Bees" effect.  That would make for
an interesting article - "Where Did All The Foulbrood Go?"

The negligent novices of the 21st Century aren't able to keep hives alive
long enough to get a case of foulbrood going, and the smell of AFB is not
something that can be ignored, so the larger number of female beekeepers
assure a much higher self-diagnosis rate when all that needs to be disposed
of is a single frame.  As the older beekeepers who used antibiotics
prophylactically age out of the business, we will see fewer latent problems,
and fewer still turn into "outbreaks".  

Expertise and training is never the answer, as AFB outbreaks tend to center
around the hives of the most experienced beekeepers, who have used their
skill and training to rationalize and avoid confronting the existential
threat they pose to their neighbors.  

Now that science has shown the Aussies right, that one can simply shake a
colony onto new combs in new boxes, and burn the equipment rather than kill
the bees, foulbrood is something that can be openly admitted to without fear
of losing everything for the smaller beekeeper.  The autoclaves used
famously in WVA and VA are also good tools to nip foulbrood cases in the
bud, and also help to preserve woodenware longer.
  
The tech-transfer team approach was supported by those of us in the City who
donate money and attend politician fundraisers, as it has a goal of purely
providing needed services, rather than imposing regulations and
empire-building.  If the inspection aspirations of the NY Dept of Ag&Mkts
gets out of hand again, and it turns out that the tech team is being misused
to impose regulations, we will do the exact same thing again, and work to
cut off all but a tiny amount of funding for apiary programs of any sort at
levels far higher than the Mr. Ball can see, let alone reach, even on his
tiptoes.  There are too many homeless people in need of care, too many roads
that are worse than the outskirts of El-Obeid Sudan, too many priorities far
more pressing than subsidizing the costs of "inspections" that beekeepers
should pay their own employees to do, ignoring the problems found at their
own peril.

It is only by cutting off funding that such wasteful nonsense can be
stopped, and it would be easy to do again, even with the rampant corruption
that Andrew Cuomo allows to fester in the dark corners.  ESHPA is useless,
as ESHPA is ignored.  Local bee clubs are even more useless, as ESHPA has
boasted that it represents all beekeepers in the state, rather than its
actual membership of a small number of upstate beekeepers, and some chronic
abusers of state and federal programs.

None of this has any impact on Joanne and I, as rooftop hives in NYC are
impossible to even find, let alone get access to, and we are well-isolated
from all problems outside Manhattan. We keep bees on a small island of the
eastern coast of the formerly United states of america. The bees are kept on
literal "ivory towers", so please excuse my tone.  :)

"Bee Associations" in NY are a bit of an oxymoron, as most of the beekeepers
willing to run for offices of such organizations are not very good at
associating with any of the others who are likewise willing to run for
office .  I know that both Aaron and Peter made attempts years ago at
getting involved, and I do hope that the abrasions and contusions have
healed by now.

My own stance remains firm in regard to all elected offices: if nominated, I
will not run, if elected, I will not serve.

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