Inger,
I am glad you got in touch with Bart Smith, who gave you a fine answer.

In 2002, I begin my 70th year of beekeeping in MARYLAND, so I have seen both
the good and the bad.  The entire inspection idea was conceived by my mentor,
Dr. James I. Hambleton, Chief Apiarist of the Federal Government Dept. of
Agriculture.  The program was announced in 1922 and the whole idea at that
time was to control the
spread of American Foul Brood, then infecting 1/3 of all the colonies in the
U. S.
The inspection program reduced the average annual infection rate of AFB
colonies to
less than 2% nationwide.

Now, in 2002, many parts of the country have a lot more to be concerned about
than
AFB.  During the past 17 years (since 1984) we have several NEW diseases or
pests
that have brutally effected beekeeping and honey production in various parts
of the
country; e. g., tracheal mite, varroa mite, now mites resistant to both
Apistan and
CheckMite, small hive beetle (now in Maryland), Africanized bees being found
on
trucks, planes, and ships entering states distant from the Southwestern
States,
and now resistant AFB.  There has always been a need for colony inspection,
simply
because many hobbyist beekeepers are not skilled in detection of these
problems
much less treatment of them, and, UNFORTUNATELY, many commercial beekeepers,
already damaged by price wars caused by imported honey, object to inspection.
Since there are almost no feral colonies left, some vegetable growers crops
have been diminished due to lack of pollination, or these growers have had to
add migratory bee pollination cost to their expenses.

Iowa, in spite of its fame for growing corn, is also a honey producing state,
and
its bees need the protection attained by having annual bee inspections.

Send the Governor and Legislative Chairpersons some of your IOWA honey with a
letter requesting a meeting of the Iowa Beekeepers with them so you can
enlighten
them about the importance of apis mellifera to human food ecology.  Most
elected
officials (in all states) have almost no knowledge of the importance of honey
bee
pollination to the human food supply.

I hope that I have helped.

BTW, if any IOWA beekeepers plan on attending the annual meeting of the
American Beekeeping Federation in Savannah, Georgia from January 15-20, look
me up and we
can talk about bees and inspection.  Everybody knows me, and I will be
whizzing
around on my electric scooter because I am partially disabled by strokes.  It
will
do you Midwest corn growers good to visit one of the jewel cities of the
South,
one so pretty that General Sherman sent a letter to President Abraham Lincoln
saying "This beautiful city is my Christmas gift to you, so I will not
destroy any
of it in my "march through Georgia".

George W. Imirie
Certified EAS Master Beekeeper
Author of George's monthly PINK PAGES