He spoke to the Maine State Beekeepers and proved himself a fraud to all
that were long time beekeepers. The problem is with the new and "want to do
the right thing" BEEHAVERS (love George Imire) who blindly follow the
latest Pied Piper. They believed him.

Who is to blame for that- we are. I did confront him at our Annual Meeting
in the question session (got many thanks for the old timers) and I
continually point out the failures of a supplier of "treatment free bees"
here in Maine.

But I know several experienced beekeepers who have visited Conrad's apiary
and said it had problems that did not jibe with his pronouncements. But
those observations seem to be closely held within the people who "really
know what is going" on but do not want to make waves.

Way back when, FGMO was the new saviour of our bees, I was outspoken in
pointing out its failures and got many messages from beekeepers who had
been in a FGMO trial and said it did not work but were afraid to speak out
because of the vociferous attack that any opponent received, including from
some on this list. I was threatened with a lawsuit (no big deal- big
difference between a threat and action). Eventually it was proved
ineffective- even though it is still around. Its defenders left this list
and started Beesource to promote the use of FGMO. Beesource still has the
lack of any good scientific base but plenty of opinions.

I appreciate Randy as one who fights this kind of crap with actual science
and trials. But we all need to spread the word and speak out.

End rant.

Bill Truesdell
Bath, Maine

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