Black Cat Honey... Note's.. Fact's.. Info.. and More...

Specials n Spring!

2009-12-01T18:45:00Z

The Special for the Christmas/Yule season are these wonderful beekeeping gloves They are the BEST around. I have not found any that are better or more durable & long lasting. Made from super soft leather & canvas; perfect for picking up and handling frames and still having a feel for what your grabbing yet still being fully protected. Leather for the high wear and protection, ventilated canvas uppers so it breaths well. Other gloves wear out quickly or are big and bulky you have no feel. Vented to help keep you cool for those hot days in the bee yard. Made with a keystone style thumb for full range of motion & comfort. You pick the size S, M, L, XL, or 2XL.
Normally $15, on sale for just $10 a pair.

Great Christmas gift for your favorite BeeKeeper

Buy more then one and save on shipping, we can ship up to 3 for $5.

Package bee's for April pick-up. Pre-Ordered..

Italian 3 lbs. with Clipped & Marked Queen, $100
Buckfast 3 lbs.with Clipped & Marked Queen, $130
Nuc's will be available as well in late May
These can be paid in person at our store, with cash or check or mail a check.

We're also setting up free delivery routes to stores, farm stands and bakeries approximately every 6 weeks thru-out southern NH and VT as well as northern & central Mass. Please call for details 1-603-392-0008

Specials & Thinking Spring!

2009-12-01T06:45:00Z

Great Christmas gift for your favorite BeeKeeper

Buy more then one and save on shipping, we can ship up to 3 for $5.

Package bee's for April pick-up. Pre-Ordered..

Italian 3 lbs. with Clipped & Marked Queen, $100
Buckfast 3 lbs.with Clipped & Marked Queen, $130
Nuc's will be available as well in late May
These can be paid in person at our store...

Yet more CCD news...

2009-12-01T05:54:00Z

Dallas
As bees continue to die off, suspicion turns to chemically coated seeds and other factors

Posted Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009.

By BILL HANNA billhanna@star-telegram.com

For Collin County commercial beekeeper John Talbert, the mysterious malady that is killing off bees means he’s keeping his hives close to home.

"It’s like people and the swine flu: The more people you get together in one spot, the higher probability you’re going to have a health problem," said Talbert, who lives near Josephine in southeastern Collin County. "I don’t move them around and keep them isolated."

But here and abroad, many other beekeepers haven’t been as fortunate.

Last winter, 29 percent of U.S. hives were lost to the mysterious phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, according to a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the U.S. Agriculture Department. The disorder was first noticed in 2005.

Colony collapse disorder has a variety of suspected causes: pesticides, varroa mites, viruses, stress from shipping hives long distances to pollinate crops — or some combination. Colony collapse disorder typically affects commercial hives and generally not those kept by hobbyists.

But some researchers and environmentalists are focusing again on pesticides as the key culprit.

"We do feel like pesticides are playing a role in pollinator decline," said Maryann Frazier, a senior extension associate with Penn State University. "We know that the pesticides are there. We don’t know yet exactly what role they’re playing."

Penn State’s research is undergoing peer review and is expected to be published by the end of the year.

Focus on neonicotinoids

Environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, are targeting chemically coated seeds, called neonicotinoids. They have called on the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend use of neonicotinoids, an artificial form of nicotine, until more conclusive research can be completed. Italy, France, Germany and Slovenia have restricted the use of some of these pesticides.

California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation, where more than 1 million honeybees are needed each winter to pollinate the almond crop, is also re-evaluating some neonicotinoids that may be harmful to bees.

"What we’re asking the EPA is to go with precautions," said Laurel Hopwood, chairwoman of the Sierra Club genetic engineering action team. "Let’s go ahead and suspend them until we get all of the research completed."

Bees are crucial to U.S. agriculture, adding an estimated $15 billion in value each year to staples such as nuts, fruit and vegetables, many of which require bee pollination.

Commercial beekeeper Clint Walker, who is based in the Central Texas town of Rogers, has been suspicious of pesticide use since the number of his hives dropped from 2,000 in summer 2005 to 600 in January 2006. The portion of his hives that pollinated cotton fields that had been sprayed in West Texas collapsed, while his hives that stayed in Central Texas and pollinated wildflowers experienced no problems.

But he will wait for definitive proof before assigning blame.

"I’m convinced in the next 24 months there will be evidence-based data that will irrefutably show why we are having colony collapse," said Walker, vice chairman of the National Honey Board and a former co-chairman of the National Honeybee Advisory Board.

Now, Walker has been far more selective on where he sends his bees. "My bees haven’t been exposed to chemicals in three years," he said. "I’m still shipping some of them to California for the almond crop late this winter — there are some fungicides there — but that’s the only exposure they’re having. We’re making honey crops on wildflowers; we’re managing them with health-protein supplements. We’re boosting their nutrition and letting them rest."

In Texas, most commercial beekeepers are based to the east of the Interstate 35 corridor and in the southern half of Texas. But most risk exposure from shipping their hives across the country.

Paul Jackson, chief apiary inspector with the Texas A&M’s Apiary Inspection Service, remains skeptical that any one thing can be blamed.

"I hope someone hits the nail on the head that can prove it, but I personally think it’s a combination of two, three or four things," Jackson said. "That’s the reason it is so hard to understand. I guess we can put the blame on pesticides, but I don’t believe that."

Multiple causes?

The Sierra Club is touting a documentary, Nicotine Bees, suggesting that neonicotinoids, which went into wide use in 2005, are the cause.

Kevin Hansen, the Albuquerque-based director of the documentary, said the fact that these seeds were distributed worldwide then is strong anecdotal evidence. But he says his film is not an attack against the chemical companies.

"I think it is more of a public-policy issue more than blaming a single chemical company," Hansen said.

The makers of neonicotinoids have insisted that there is no hard evidence against the seeds.

"Everybody knows this is about the varroa mite, the nosema pest and a number of fungal and viral diseases," Dr. Julian Little, a British spokesman for Bayer CropScience told The Independent newspaper in London in September. "The healthiest bees in the world are in Australia, where they have lots of neonicotinoids, but they don’t have varroa. If you look at a country where they have restricted the use of neonicotinoids, France, they have a worse bee problem there than they do in the U.K."

In the United States, the EPA created a pollinator protection team in June and announced a strategic plan to deal with colony collapse disorder. In August, the Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit after the EPA failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request for agency documents on pesticide use and colony collapse disorder.

Talbert, the Collin County beekeeper, wonders whether bees and colony collapse disorder are "canaries in the coal mines" for humans.

"Some of us think we’ve got enough chemicals out there killing bees, which begs the question: What is it doing to people?" Talbert said.

BILL HANNA, 817-390-7698

Honey News

2009-09-01T18:43:00Z

Important Honey News

"Antimicrobial activity of honey against food pathogens and food spoilage microorganisms," Cornell University. This study investigated the antimicrobial activity of different types of honey against food pathogens and food spoilage microorganisms. The study showed that certain varieties of honey inhibited the growth of these organisms. Thus, incorporating some varieties of honey into foods could enhance the safety and shelf life of the products without the use of chemical preservatives. ( read the the full version of this research click here.)

"Buckwheat honey, a natural sweetener, conveys antioxidant protection to healthy human subjects," University of California at Davis. Antimutagenic effect of honeys against Trp-p-1 Free Radicals have been implicated in aging and many diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Antioxidants in the human diet protect us from some of this damage. The study found that antioxidant compounds in Buckwheat honey could provide some level of antioxidant protection. Since more than 150 pounds of sugar are consumed annually by each U.S. citizen, this investigation suggests that if honey was substituted for sweeteners traditionally used in food products, it could substantially improve total antioxidant intake by humans. (to read the the full version of this research click here.)

"Antimutagenic effect of honeys against Trp-p-1," University of Illinois at Urbana. Antioxidants often have antimutagenic properties, but nothing was known about honey in this regard. (Antimutagenic compounds interfere with or reduce the effect of harmful changes in cells in the body.) This research shows that honey is antimutagenic, offering yet another reason to use it as an ingredient and in the diet. (to read the the full version of this research click here.)

Newest CCD info and the EU

2009-05-16T07:12:00Z

Bayer Pesticide Chemicals Linked to Devastating Collapse of Honeybee Populations

(NaturalNews) German government researchers have concluded that a bestselling Bayer pesticide is responsible for the recent massive die-off of honeybees across the country's Baden-Württemberg region. In response, the government has banned an entire family of pesticides, fueling accusations that pesticides may be responsible for the current worldwide epidemic of honeybee die-offs.

Researchers found buildup of the pesticide clothianidin in the tissues of 99 percent of dead bees in Baden-Württemberg state. The German Research Center for Cultivated Plants concluded that nearly 97 percent of honeybee deaths had been caused directly by contact with the insecticide.

"It can unequivocally be concluded that a poisoning of the bees is due to the rub-off of the pesticide ingredient clothianidin from corn seeds," said the federal agricultural research agency, the Julius Kuehn Institute.

The pesticide was applied to rapeseed and sweet corn seeds along the Rhine River Valley, which borders Baden-Württemberg to the west and south.

"Beekeepers in the region started finding piles of dead bees at the entrance of hives in early May, right around the time corn seeding takes place," said Walter Haefeker, president of the European Professional Beekeepers Association.

A total of two-thirds of all bees in the entire state are believed to have been killed by the chemical.

"It's a real bee emergency," said Manfred Hederer, president of the German Professional Beekeepers' Association. "Fifty to 60 percent of the bees have died on average, and some beekeepers have lost all their hives."

Clothianidin, marketed in Europe under the brand name Poncho, is a widely used insecticide in the neonicotinoid family. Like all neonicotinoids, it is a systemic pesticide that is applied to the seeds of plants and then spreads itself throughout all plant tissues. Based on nicotine, the neonicotinoids function as neurotoxins that attack the nervous systems of insects such as honeybees.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified clothianidin as "highly toxic" to honeybees. The chemical was approved for U.S. use in 2003 and German use in 2004.

Clothianidin manufacturer Bayer CropScience, a subsidiary of chemical giant Bayer, blamed the honeybee deaths on incorrect application of the pesticide. Before seeds are sprayed, a fixative should be applied to keep the poison from spreading into the rest of the environment. In the current situation, Bayer says, the fixative was not applied and clothianidin spread into the air.

But beekeepers and pesticide critics rejected this explanation, calling for Germany to follow France's footsteps in banning the chemical - and indeed, all neonicotinoids.

"We have been pointing out the risks of neonicotinoids for almost 10 years now," said Philipp Mimkes, spokesman for the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers. "This proves without a doubt that the chemicals can come into contact with bees and kill them. These pesticides shouldn't be on the market."

While stopping short of a total ban, the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety acted quickly upon release of the study data, placing a provisional ban upon all seven pesticides in the neonicotinoid family. These chemicals may not be used in Germany until the manufacturers can supply enough data to convince the government that they are safe.

The seven provisionally banned pesticides are the clothianidin-based brands Poncho and Elado; the imidacloprid-based brands Antarc, Chinook and Faibell; methiocarb-based Mesurol; and thiamethoxam-based Cruiser

Six of the seven products are made by Bayer, while Mesurol is manufactured by Syngenta.

Bayer's neonicotinoids have been blamed for killing honeybees before, most notably in France. There the company's best-selling pesticide, imidacloprid, was banned from use on sunflower seeds in 1999 after being blamed for killing off a third of the country's honeybees. In 2004, France extended the ban to sweet corn seeds. The government rejected Bayer's application for clothianidin use in France only a few months ago.

In North Dakota, a group of beekeepers is suing Bayer, alleging that imidacloprid was responsible for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) in that state in 1995. One-third of North Dakota honeybees died that year after imidacloprid was applied to rapeseed there.

Imidacloprid is marketed in France under the brand name Gaucho, but is also sold as Admire, Advantage, Confidor, Hachikusan, Kohinor, Merit, Premise, Prothor, and Winner.

Around the world, honeybee stocks are in decline, which scientists have warned could have devastating impacts on global food supplies. A total of 80 percent of world food crops are primarily or exclusively pollinated by honeybees, amounting to 130 crops and $15 billion worth of food each year in the United States alone.

Yet two million honeybee colonies have been lost in the United States in recent years, with massive dieoffs also reported across Europe and in Taiwan, where 10 million bees recently disappeared over the course of only two weeks.

"If nothing is done about it, the [British] honeybee population could be wiped out in 10 years," warned U.K. Farming Minister Lord Rooker in 2007.

While in many cases bees have actually been found dead, as in the Baden-Württemberg incident, beekeepers have been particularly alarmed by CCD, in which the bees simply vanish, leaving empty hives behind them.

Neonicotinoid pesticides have been suggested as a possible cause of CCD, with advocates of this theory noting that since the pesticide spreads through all plant tissues, bees might be exposed through the pollen of treated plants. At least one study concluded that neonicotinoids are likely to become concentrated in bee hives in high levels, transported by contaminated pollen.

A number of studies have found that in low doses, neonicotinoids produce symptoms consistent with CCD. Termites exposed to imidacloprid experienced disorientation and immune system failure, while bees exposed to low levels of the chemical experienced impaired communication, homing and foraging ability, flight activity, and olfactory discrimination and learning.
Sources for this story include: www.guardian.co.uk. pubs.acs.org, www.allheadlinenews.com

Another great story...
BAYER Neonicotinoid Pesticides cause Mass Death of Bees
author: CBGnetwork
March 6, 2009 - Bayer managers have known the risks of a pesticide class called neonicotinoids for the environment since the beginning of the 90ies. The company downplayed the risks, submitted deficient studies to authorities and accepted the loss of honey bees in many parts of the world. After huge bee deaths in Germany last year the Coalition against Bayer Dangers brought a charge against Bayer for knowingly endangering the environment.
Neonicotinoid Pesticides cause Mass Death of Bees

Bayer CropScience is the world leader in agrochemicals. Bayer´s annual pesticide sales amount to €5.8 billion (£4.6bn). Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide imidacloprid which belongs to the substance class of neonicotinoids. Imidacloprid is one of the most used insecticides in the world for field and horticultural crops. It is often used as seed-dressing, especially for maize, sunflower, and rape. The substance is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide.
Since patent protection for imidacloprid ran off in most countries, Bayer brought a similarly working successor product on the market in 2003. Clothianidin sales last year amounted to 223 million euros. The substance is mainly used for seed coating of maize and rape.
The beginning of the marketing of neonicotinoids coincided with the occurrence of large bee deaths, first in France, later on also in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, the USA and Brazil.
The bee dangers of imidacloprid and clothianidin are indisputable. In the data sheets published by the German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) it is noted: "The substance is classified as dangerous for bees (B1). It may not be applied on flowering plants; this applies also to weeds". According to the US Environmental Protection Agency imidacloprid and clothianidin are "highly toxic" to honeybees.
Because of their high persistence neonicotinoids can remain in the ground for several years. For clothianidin half-lives of up to five years were observed. Therefore even untreated plants, on whose fields imidacloprid or clothianidin was applied in previous years, can take up the substance over the roots and can contain a concentration dangerous for bees.

Banned in France

In France imidacloprid has been banned as a seed dressing for sunflowers since 1999, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later it was also banned as a sweetcorn treatment in France. Clothianidin was never approved in France.
In 2003 the Comité Scientifique et Technique, convened by the French government, declared that the treatment of seeds with imidacloprid leads to significant risks for bees. The 108-page report that was made by order of the French agricultural ministry by the universities of Caen and Metz and by the Institut Pasteur states: "The results of the examination on the risks of the seeds-treatment Gaucho (imidacloprid) are alarming. The treatment of seeds by Gaucho is a significant risk to bees in several stages of life. (... ) Concerning the treatment of maize-seeds by Gaucho, the results are as alarming as with sunflowers. The consumption of contaminated pollen can lead to an increased mortality of care-taking-bees, which can explain the persisting bee-deaths even after the ban of the treatment on sunflowers".
The studies also showed that even very small dosages, few parts per billion, could impair honeybees´ learning performance. Residues of imidacloprid in sunflower nectar and pollen were found at potentially hazardous levels that "can affect honeybees´ learning abilities" and impair their memory. When individual bees were exposed to sublethal doses their foraging activity decreased and they became disorientated, which researchers concluded "can temporarily damage the entire colony".

Approval of Clothianidin

Clothianidin is the successor to imidacloprid and was brought on the American market in 2003 and the German market in 2006.
The EPA fact sheet states: "Clothianidin is highly toxic to honey bees on an acute basis (LD50>0.0439 μg/bee). It has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honey bees, as well as other non-target pollinators through the translocation of clothianidin resides in nectar and pollen. In honey bees, the affects of this toxic chronic exposure may include lethal and/or sub-lethal effects in the larvae and reproductive effects on the queen". The Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency PMRA even states that "Clothianidin was determined to be highly toxic to the honey bee, Apis mellifera, on an acute oral basis with a LD50 of 0.00368 μg/bee" which is 1/10 of the quantity the US EPA states.
German beekeepers warned of clothianidin´s risks already in 2006. In a letter to German authorities Manfred Hederer, chairman of the German beekeepers federation DBIB, criticized that clothianidin´s harmlessness maintained by Bayer is based on one-sided studies. This is confirmed by the Canadian PMRA which judges on Bayer´s application: "All of the field/semi-field studies, however, were found to be deficient in design and conduct of the studies and were, therefore, considered as supplemental information only. Clothianidin may pose a risk to honey bees and other pollinators, if exposure occurs via pollen and nectar of crop plants grown from treated seeds ".

Bee deaths in southern Germany

In May 2008 in southern Germany beekeepers reported that two thirds of their bees died, some beekeepers lost all their hives. Wild living insects decreased likewise. The loss for the affected beekeepers is on average about 17.000 euros.
Tests on dead bees showed that 99% of those examined had a build-up of clothianidin. The chemical had been applied to the seeds of sweetcorn planted along the Rhine river. The Julius Kuehn Institut, a federal research institute dealing with agricultural issues, stated that "Clothianidin is clearly responsible for the death of the bees in parts of Baden-Wuerttemberg". The German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) immediately ordered the suspension of the approval for both imidacloprid and clothianidin; Bayer.
Beekeepers and agricultural officials in Italy, France, Slovenia and Holland noticed similar phenomena in their fields when planting began a few weeks ago. Slovenian and Italian authorities also forbade clothianidin.
Environmental groups across Europe are demanding a total ban of imidacloprid and clothianidin. The Coalition against Bayer Dangers, based in Germany, brought a charge against Werner Wenning, chairman of the Bayer Board of Management. Bayer is accused of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby accepting the mass death of bees all over the world. The Coalition introduced the charge in cooperation with German beekeepers who lost their hives after the poisoning last year.

more information:
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW; August 28, 2008
EPA sued after allegations Bayer pesticide killing honeybees
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2605.html

Press Release, August 25, 2008
Coalition against BAYER Dangers (Germany)
Pesticides cause mass death of bees
Germany: Charge against Bayer´s Board of Management
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2596.html

Aug 26, 2008, The News & Observer (Raleigh/USA)
Bayer on defensive in bee deaths
German authorities look into allegation that RTP maker's pesticide harms environment
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2599.html

The Guardian, May 23 2008
Pesticides: Germany bans chemicals linked to honeybee devastation
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2518.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/23/wildlife.endangeredspecies
=> Sierra Club urges EPA to suspend nicotinyl insecticides: http://www.sierraclub.org/biotech/whatsnew/whatsnew_2008-07-30.asp
=> French Institutes Finds Imidaproclid Turning Up in Wide Range of Crops
=> 2003 report from the "Comité Scientifique et Technique de l'Etude Multifactorielle des Troubles des Abeilles" http://agriculture.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/rapportfin.pdf

Coalition against BAYER Dangers
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CBGnetwork@aol.com
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Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the Bundestag, Burgwald
Wolfram Esche, attorney, Cologne
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist, Bremen
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the Bundestag, Berlin
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Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician, Dormag
CBGnetwork
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March 6, 2009 - Bayer managers have known the risks of a pesticide class called neonicotinoids for the environment since the beginning of the 90ies. The company downplayed the risks, submitted deficient studies to authorities and accepted the loss of honey bees in many parts of the world. After huge bee deaths in Germany last year the Coalition against Bayer Dangers brought a charge against Bayer for knowingly endangering the environment.

Neonicotinoid Pesticides cause Mass Death of Bees

Bayer CropScience is the world leader in agrochemicals. Bayer´s annual pesticide sales amount to €5.8 billion (£4.6bn). Since 1991 Bayer has been producing the insecticide imidacloprid which belongs to the substance class of neonicotinoids. Imidacloprid is one of the most used insecticides in the world for field and horticultural crops. It is often used as seed-dressing, especially for maize, sunflower, and rape. The substance is Bayer´s best-selling pesticide.
Since patent protection for imidacloprid ran off in most countries, Bayer brought a similarly working successor product on the market in 2003. Clothianidin sales last year amounted to 223 million euros. The substance is mainly used for seed coating of maize and rape.
The beginning of the marketing of neonicotinoids coincided with the occurrence of large bee deaths, first in France, later on also in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, the USA and Brazil.
The bee dangers of imidacloprid and clothianidin are indisputable. In the data sheets published by the German Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) it is noted: "The substance is classified as dangerous for bees (B1). It may not be applied on flowering plants; this applies also to weeds". According to the US Environmental Protection Agency imidacloprid and clothianidin are "highly toxic" to honeybees.
Because of their high persistence neonicotinoids can remain in the ground for several years. For clothianidin half-lives of up to five years were observed. Therefore even untreated plants, on whose fields imidacloprid or clothianidin was applied in previous years, can take up the substance over the roots and can contain a concentration dangerous for bees.

Want more? Need more??
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14369.cfm &
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/11/26/millions_of_bees_dead_bayers_gaucho_blamed.htm & http://www.manataka.org/page1397.html &
http://www.sunjournal.com/story/214193-3/Business/Possible_culprit_identified_in_decline_of_honeybees/ A wonderful little story of how neonicotinoids affect bee's and make them more suseptible to other things.
AND the best one of all http://www.britishbeekeeping.com/ seems that since 2000, The British Bee Association have been accepting money from pesticide manufacturers in return for the use of their logo to advertise their products as 'bee friendly'.
And I thought the US was bad... Tsk Tsk...

Imidacloprid‏

2009-05-16T07:11:00Z

CATCH THE BUZZ Comments to EPA on Imidacloprid‏

From:	Kim Flottum (Kim@BeeCulture.com)
Sent:	Thu 3/26/09 10:07 AM
To:	blackcathoney@hotmail.com

This ezine is also available online at http://home.ezezine.com/1636/1636-2009.03.26.10.08.archive.html

CATCH THE BUZZ

These comments, submitted by the National Honey Bee Advisory Board to EPA concerning the registration of imidacloprid, a systemic pesticide produced by Bayer Chemical Company, have been edited here because of length. But the stories have not been changed or altered. The NHBAB consists of beekeepers from both the AHPA and the ABF, and represents most of the nation’s commercial beekeepers. EPA now must act on these and other comments regarding this compound. At the same time, this group of beekeepers and Bayer are meeting to discuss continued research with this compound. Time will tell if increased regulation, or more precise research improve the situation.

Beekeepers from around the United States, and around the world, have had persistent problems associated with the use of the systemic pesticide imidacloprid. Since the first uses of imidacloprid in France in 1994 on sunflowers beekeepers reported problems. Soon the condition was given a name in France: “mad bee disease.” Problems reported by beekeepers, combined with mounting independent scientific data, caused the French Minister of Agriculture to suspend the use of imidacloprid on sunflowers in January of 1999. In February 2004, France extended the suspension to include uses on corn. At the same time they further broadened the ban on systemic insecticides to includ e the chemical fipronil.

In Europe the debate goes on, important data from toxicity studies is being produced. Conclusions from this data vary. The chemical manufacturers continue to maintain that the systemic compound imidacloprid is safe for use around honeybees, native pollinators, birds, and does not pose an unreasonable risk to the environment. Reports from the field, however, are telling a different story. The recent dramatic increase in use of imidacloprid on a greatly expanded list of cropland, rangeland, forest, residential, and recreational (golf courses and parks), has greatly increased exposure of pollinators to contaminated nectar and pollen expressed from flowering crops and weeds.

Imidacloprid is only one of six product formulations in the broader class of “systemic neonicotinoids.” Although only imidacloprid is currently ‘up’ for public comment, all six of these products in this class are of great concern to beekeepers. Much attention has been given to the seed treatments such as Gaucho, a trade name for a formulation of imidacloprid.

Recent data from Penn State on crabapple trees, although unpublished, and not yet replicated is extremely concerning. Two controls, and two treated trees were used in the experiment. After three weeks no imidacloprid was detected. However the next spring pollen samples from pollen sacs and anthers tested over 900 ppb combined Imidacloprid and 2 principal degradants: 5- hydroxe and olefin. In nectaries the combined number was 1,450 ppb. Although further research is required for this study to be properly concluded, the initial data raises questions about how imidacloprid is stored and translocated in woody plants, like fruit trees.

Find out what's new at Mann Lake www.mannlakeltd.com/catchthebuzz/index.html

Farmers, pesticide applicators, and beekeepers all look to EPA to provide guidance on safe and unsafe ways to apply these economic poisons. We will quote the public comment of Roger Haldenby (Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. tracking number 808bfe56, February 23, 2009) on Imidacloprid: “There are reports of imidacloprid toxicity to bees, birds, earthworms, and some fresh water crustaceans. The impact of imidacloprid on these organisms can be mitigated by proper application of the insecticide in accordance with label instructions.”

Systemic pesticides, like imidacloprid, work on a different principal. The chemical is taken up into the plant tissue, and becomes systemic. Active chemical is moved throughout the plant including the nectar and pollen of the treated crop plant, or inadvertently treated weed. Once the chemical is in the nectar and pollen of the plant, no protective means can be employed to protect the pollinator who gathers the poisoned food. There is no “label warning” currently to protect pollinators from imidacloprid tainted nectar and pollen. EPA does not have “safe label” instructions for imidacloprid.

In an advertisement for Premise 200SC, an imidacloprid product for termite control, Bayer states, “Premise 200SC interferes with (the) instinctive social behavior (of termites), contributing to the termites’ demise. Low doses of Premise 200 SC disorientate the termites and cause them to cease their natural grooming behavior. Grooming is important for termites to protect them against pathogenic soil fungi. When termites stop grooming, the naturally occurring fungi in the soil attack and kill termites. Premise 200SC makes fungi 10,000 times more dangerous to termites. Nature assists Premis in giving unsurpassed control.” (Bayer Premise SC Brochure)

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Major incidents have been reported by beekeepers linked to imidacloprid. EPA is aware that their incident reporting database of pesticide effects on honeybees is not working. At the December 2, 2008 meeting between US EPA Office of Pesticide Programs and Beekeepers, the beekeepers explained how the incident reporting system, which utilizes state departments of agriculture and chemical manufacturing companies, is not reporting beekeeper field incidents with pesticides. The beekeepers at the meeting presented a wall chart showing all incidents reported to EPA and then detailed how their own personal incidents, as well as incidents of colleagues not there. Providing a mechanism for reporting bee incidents was one of the eight “action items” listed as coming out of that meeting.

Recognizing that EPA is not aware of beekeeper incidents related to pesticides, we would like to provide you with a partial list of our own. Many beekeepers will be reporting their individual incidents independently. The list below by no means should be considered as complete; it only attempts to showcase a few of the most prominent incidents. Many commercial beekeepers have had problems related to the use of imidacloprid.

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The largest incident involved seven beekeepers in North Dakota and Minnesota with Gaucho, a product formulation of Imidacloprid seed treatment on canola. The seven beekeepers initiated legal action against Bayer Crop Science in Federal Court. Private laboratory tests performed on the beekeepers’ wax comb and honey in barrels. “ADPEN analyzed the material for imidacloprid, carbofuran, dichlotvos and coumaphos. They found residues of imidacloprid in all of the samples. The levels of imidacloprid found ranged from 22 to 671 ppb. These levels are much higher than the LD50 and are certainly killing honeybees and causing sub lethal effects” (Mayer sworn and notarized DOC dated 12^th January 2007). Chris Charles explained that placing these boxes on top of his hives would cause an immediate die off of the fie ld bees. Concerns about this lethal mix in his wax combs caused him to replace his entire comb with new. He observed that his bees recovered after being given new fresh wax.

Clint Walker relates his experience with imidacloprid and cotton in Texas. “In the summer of 2006 we shipped 500 bee hives to the cotton fields of West Texas. It was a drought year where the only green plants were under irrigation. During the active bloom phase of the cotton it was treated with aerial and ground applications of imidacloprid (Gaucho and Admire) for aphids. All of our 500 hives received sustained exposure to this chemical with no immediate ill effects. Our crop was short due to the drought. As we relocated the bees back to our home territory (Central Texas) in the early fall, the bees were strong and apparently healthy.”

By In January of 2007 we began to see a significant portion of our nearly 2000 hives begin to collapse with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) symptoms. As we searched for an explanation to our losses, a disturbing pattern emerged: All of the collapsing hives had been in West Texas four months earlier. We saw no CCD in the Central Texas bee colonies. This was the only difference in the cultural practice of the bees that collapsed and those that were healthy.”

Dave Hackenberg tells his story of CCD on the East coast. In 2004, when our bees were first exposed to imidacloprid, we saw things happen in our bees that we have never seen before. Good colonies of bees run through pollinations and honey crops over the summer that we now know were exposed to Assail in Apple pollination and Admire in pumpkin pollination, by fall when no new food was coming into the hives, began to collapse at a rapid pace, leaving nothing but a queen and a few bees in the boxes. The farmers that I work with are sensitive to using anything that would hurt my bees because they recognize how important good pollination is to the success of their crops. They were told by their chemical suppliers that these ‘new’ pesticides were ‘safer’ for honeybees and they could even apply them during bloom without damage to the bees. We did not see any dead bees in front of our hives while they were in these pollinations. In the fall, it was clear that the bees that had been on honey locations were OK with normal mortality of 10 to 15% loss, while the pollination hives had 75 to 80% loss. The ‘surviving’ pollination hives were not healthy and they failed to build properly in the spring. We saw this same problem with pollination hives in 2005 and 2006. It was in the fall of 2006 that we began to associate these losses with summer pollination exposure. Since then we have communicated to our growers some of our concerns and the losses have gotten better in apple pollination where the grower had ‘options’ to use other products. In pumpkin pollination, the growers have not had such luck since there are few other ‘approved’ products available to them.

Gene Brandi tells his story of watermelon pollination in California. “Another route of imidacloprid exposure to which my bees have been subjected is by chemigation with Admire on watermelons. Growers who chemigate with pesticides highly toxic to bees are not required to notify registered beekeepers in California, so I was not aware until after the fact that this practice was occurring. In the summer of 2007 I pollinated watermelons with nearly one thousand colonies of my bees. After approximately 50% of these colonies died during the following winter (compared to an 18% winter loss in my colonies that did not pollinate watermelons), I contacted the grower and discovered that the watermelons had been chemigated with Admire. My colonies that were not in watermelon pollination were exposed to other products, and yet did not sustain the same magnitude of w inter loss. Although I do not have conclusive proof that exposure to imidacloprid was the cause of this bee loss, the correlation of this loss to watermelon pollination was enough for me to stop pollinating watermelons.

Dave Mendes tells his story of orange orchards in Florida. “I am a commercial beekeeper operating 7500 hives for honey production and crop pollination in the states of Florida, California, Maine, and Massachusetts. I participated in a research project organized through Penn State from March 2007 until January 2008 to follow a group of beehives through a complete season to monitor several different conditions in these hives to determine what factors may contribute to hive mortality. I was one of three beekeepers in this study who each selected 18 to 24 hives that would be sampled each time they were moved to a new location. My hives were sampled 7 times during the test period. I started the stud y with 18 hives and ended with 4 hives total and only one of these was in good enough shape to produce honey or pollinate an agricultural crop. The first samples taken while the bees were in Florida citrus showed levels of 14 to 17 ppb of imidacloprid in the pollen inside the hives. I spoke to the grove manager and found out that Admire Pro had been applied to the younger trees in his grove (40,000 trees in a grove of 600,000 trees) in February as a ground application as the trees began to bloom. The research on imidacloprid that I could find showed levels of 3 to 5 ppb as the highest recorded levels in citrus nectar or pollen. I inquired to Bayer Crop Science and the Florida pesticide regulatory people to find out more about what effect these levels of imidacloprid could cause in my beehives. I found very little information that addressed my concerns.

Imidacloprid, a systemic insecticide, moves through the treated plant to the nectar and pollen. The chemical remains persistent in soils for several years, can be taken up by subsequent plantings and weeds, and expressed in their pollen and nectar. No mechanism exists to protect honeybees from this exposure. Due to the vitally important nature of pollinators we recommend that imidacloprid be removed from use in the United States. Simply stated there is just no way to protect bees from this danger.

The reader may ask how did we find ourselves at the point where an extremely dangerous chemical compound has come into such widespread use, threatening the very existence and viability of the pollination framework of the country. The answer is simple. Deregulation, the same concept which precipitated our financial collapse, has precipitated an environmental collapse no less serious. At the same time that financial institutions were being given a free reign to regulate themselves on the naive assumption that industry knew best, pesticide regulation was being turned over from EPA to industry on the same assumption.

US EPA used to do pesticide screening in honeybees, do pesticide toxicity study themselves, but today industry directs and funds the critical toxicity studies to determine product safety themselves. The studies are shown to EPA for registration purposes, then filed away as “proprietary information” far from the scrutiny of the public eye. Enforcement actions are not taken by EPA; instead these critically important functions are delegated to individual state departments of agriculture, under an arrangement ironically called a “primacy agreement.”

The problems faced by the beekeeping industry are not limited to one single chemical compound. They are in fact linked to a pervasive regulatory failure. When the EPA was first set up, it was in response to environmental challenges of an unprecedented nature. At that time the country was using 200,000,000 pounds of active ingredient chemical pesticides. Today that number is over 5,000,000,000 pounds of active ingredient. Simply put, the country is drowning in chemicals. These very “economic poisons” are doing their job too well, and because of the deregulation process we are faced with a perfect storm today capable of destroying our countries pollinator base which will carry with it agricultural and environmental catastrophe.

The fundamental change which is necessary is to return to a system at EPA which independently tests chemical compounds before they are released for widespread use. Precaution and prevention are words which need to return to environmental protection. Massive field experiments, such as what has occurred with the neonicotinoid class of systemic insecticides is just too high risk of a behavior. Environmental catastrophe such as global warming, and our current pollinator crisis are big flashing warning lights. These warning lights are there to tell us something, they are telling us to take action before it is too late.

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More CCD & more thoughts and points to ponder...

2009-05-16T07:10:00Z

When CCD first broke last fall--before it was even called Colony Collapse--a lot of people pointed the finger at high-fructose corn syrup. Now it is in some 30+ states. Some suspected contamination from genetically modified corn; others just surmised that this crap was not any better for bees than it is for us. I feel that if it is in the corn, it's probably in the syrup. A lot of beekeepers have stopped using HFCS, joining a small number of purists, like myself, who'd always shunned it, preferring instead to feed the bees honey or a self made sugar syrup. This costs the beekeepers money, since honey still fetches a decent price on the market, but it pays off in the long run. Don't ever feed your bees honey that you don't know and trust the source of the honey tho, many off the shelf honeys are not as pure as you might thing and can carry AFB (American Foul Brood) spores. I don't use any HFCS. I'm convinced that as a result, my bees are stronger; even on the bees I move, I have kept my losses this past year under 10%, while some of my colleagues lost more than half and sometimes up to 90 percent, including one in Shelburne Falls Mass that lost 75%.

Is hauling bees around the countryside in the back of a truck and feeding them soda sweetener what is making them weak? As Jerry Hayes, the CCD top man, puts it, "What would happen to you if I made you run marathons, sleep every night in the back of a moving car, and only fed you chocolate bars?" Think about how you'd feel..

Another thought is Genetic Diversity. Many bee breeders sell there own bees. Many are line "line" breeders with out even knowing it. Anyone that breeds good dog or cats will tell you line breeding si very bad. Line breeding is incest, and thats so easy to do with bee's and drones. Many drones are the off spring of the mother queen, even if from your other hives.. where did you get all the bees from? the same place, so I'd bet they are all related.

For most of the 20th century, the federal government maintained four laboratories dedicated to honeybee research. But in the last seven or eight years, funding has fluctuated and the feds have threatened to shutter some labs entirely, even as threats to bee health and demand for pollination have increased. Solutions to so many of the problems plaguing the bee industry seem tantalizingly close--the bee genome was just sequenced, for instance, and anecdotal evidence suggests that a hardier, more industrious bee could be produced by controlled cross-breeding domestic bees with Africanized "killer" bees--but the resources to produce these breakthroughs just aren't there. I feel this might be a really bad idea. I have heard of a local Keene NH area hobby beekeeper that got a package of Africanized bee's.. they most likely would not have lived thru the winter, BUT did go after the family, including the dog, when the dog brushed against the hive.. They stopped counting at 600 stings on the dog.. and yes it did not make it. I have to wonder if this is a path that might be better if we stayed off. If you recall the Africanized bee's came in the Americas by a similar breeding plan back in the 1950's in Brazil. I much prefer picking up where Brother Adams left off after his lives work.

Brother Adam has devoted a lifetime, nearly 70 years, to developing a new bee, the Buckfast bee. He was born Aug. 3. 1898 in southern Germany under the name of Karl Kehrle. In 1910, as a very sickly little11-year-old boy, he was dropped off at Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Devon, England by his mother. By 1915 he began his work with bees and by 1919 he took over the responsibility for the bee yard and saved the British beekeepers in the process.

Brother Adam has in his book Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey, page 52, formulated his aim of breeding as follows : "Our ultimate aim is the formation of a bee that will give us a constant maximum average crop consonant with a minimum of effort and time on our part."

Brother Adam's overriding idea of breeding is that none of the native races alone have all the best possible combinations of qualities to suit man. But just like the corn breeding program, like crosses followed by selection can give us better bees. Brother Adam wanted to combine the best qualities from different races into a new super bee possessing a combination of qualities that give the modern beekeeper maximum crops with a minimum of work. Something he did very well,tho was never really finished. He was able to go back 50 years in maternal AND paternal genealogy with his bees and all this long before computers and the like.

When the Acarine mite (Tracheal Mite) came to the British Isles, it exterminated the native black bees. Thirty of the monastery's 46 colonies died in 1915/16 due to the mite infestation (the black bees in England today are descendants from imported black bees). The surviving 16 colonies were all headed by Italian queens mated with native black drones. The best of these crosses formed the base of Brother Adam's new bee.

The last time the beekeeping industry was threatened was in the late '80s, by the varroa mite. Back then, bees were raised primarily for their honey, profit margins were small, and bees traveling to the coast on pollination trips was basically unheard-of. Alarms were raised, but nothing much was done, and 20 years later, beekeepers are still battling varroa. But in the last 10 years, fees for pollination have increased by 600 percent--from $20 to $25 per hive in the late '90s to more than $150 per hive now. Even taking into account the rising costs of maintaining bees, that's staggering. Package bees themselves have risen quite a bit and many bee breeders are little more than "puppy mills". Package bees here in New England vary from about $60 to $125. Cheaper is not always the better deal, think dogs.. This growth was stimulated by expansion of the almond market (among others), and the simultaneous decline of natural pollinators by mites and the destruction of their natural habitats. All this new money created a small elite of relatively wealthy, bottom-line über-beekeepers. These people already have significant capital invested in equipment; they're unable or disinclined to reform their practices, they know how to use the system to their advantage, and they are determined not to let this become another chronic problem to be managed by more hang-ups in time and money, à la varroa. Enter: Colony Collapse Disorder?

One would be hard-pressed to come up with something more topical, more media-friendly, more sexy than CCD. Colony Collapse Disorder, with its undertones of apocalypse and extinction, is intensely appealing to our collective sense of guilt about shitting all over the environment and our expectation of (and perhaps even desire for) some kind of divine punishment. Almost all the beekeepers I talked to, even the obscure hobbyists, were already sick and tired of talking to reporters, such has been the blitz. "The bees are dying, and you could be next" is the new "we've got to take out Saddam or he'll drop the A-bomb on us!" And cell phones are not the cause.. well maybe if the bee si flying while talking on it.. but otherwise no..
In the end, perhaps Colony Collapse isn't much of a mystery at all. Bees are dying because they eat too much corn syrup, work too much, spend too much time in a truck rather than outside, and are being poisoned by pollutants. The same things that are killing us are killing the bees, there life cycle is just faster . Think back some years with the 3 eyed fish and the mutated frogs..

But while it's clear that commercial practices are weakening bees, rendering them susceptible to all kinds of opportunistic pathogens, there's still a major missing piece of the puzzle. The sudden onset of CCD this past year leads one to suspect that there was something that set off the die-offs, some new pathogen or environmental pressure that tipped the scale. But what?

I remember that most beekeeper use high-fructose corn syrup. I also remember reading that alot of corn grown in the US is genetically modified. So I have to wonder if high-fructose corn syrup tainted with genetically modified organisms could be the culprit. I have been asked quite a bit about what's causing CCD.

I don't feel I need to guess anymore.
I don't know if I should talk about this, and do wonder whom might complain and file a lawsuit in these lawsuit happy days. I'm connected with a lot of people very close to this CCD investigation, and I know that there are researchers who are very careful about what they say and just as importantly don't say --they're almost afraid for their lives and lively hood.

I feel CCD was triggered, by a class of pesticides widely used to treat seeds and plants. Alot of corn seeds come treated with it before the farmer even gets it to plant. Then many treat the whole field with more. The plants that grow from these treated seeds incorporate the pesticide into their entire systems, called a systemic poison, from roots to leaves to stems to pollen and nectar. When pests (or bees) feed on treated plants, the chemical destroys their nervous system. The people in charge know that this particular type of pesticide is causing CCD, but they're keeping it quiet--and spending millions to make sure others keep it that way. At the end of this story--it takes an hour to tell and includes other nefarious and high-level government conspiracies. The pesticides, marketed under the names Poncho, Gaucho, Admire, Calypso and many other names, all belong to a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids, "systemic" pesticides which, when applied to seeds, manifest themselves throughout the mature plant. When an insect ingests any part of the plant--leaf, seed, stem, or, in the case of bees, pollen or nectar, it gets a dose of a neurotoxin that can cause a swift and lethal breakdown of an insect's nervous and immune system. For growers, this pesticide is efficient and limits their own exposure to nasty chemicals sprayed directly on their crops. Introduced in the early '90s, these pesticides were a true revolution in pest control.

But not all insects are pests. In fact, one of these chemicals, imidacloprid, is the very same pesticide--marketed here as Admire and overseas as Gaucho--that was banned in France in 1999 as a suspected culprit in drastic and mysterious die-offs in honeybees. Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and chemical company better known for aspirin, has a crop science division that manufactures and sells Gaucho and many other pesticides. The company protested the ban in France, citing studies that found no correlation between imidacloprid and bee die-offs; beekeepers countered with their own studies that found the opposite result. The French government sided with the beekeepers, and the ban stayed in place and was expanded in 2004. Imidacloprid/Gaucho/Admire is used on a wide selection of fruits and vegetables in the United States, including apples, strawberries, and melons--all crops routinely pollinated by bees--and countless others.

Now thinking about the hives that have been lost, those that seem like textbook cases of CCD. Could the bees have been exposed to this particular type of pesticide? Looking at a map you might not see much, which wasn't encouraging; bees have a flight radius of only 2-5 miles in each direction from their hive, and there didn't seem to be any cultivated farmland nearby. But when you ask the beekeeper if he knows of any crops nearby, they usually says yes immediately. There's a huge farm a couple mile away.

Most Farms use pesticides. Depending on which pests they have at the time. Most wouldn't reveal the brand names or the specific chemicals they use to kill bugs.

Even if the local farm isn't using imidacloprid, it's entirely possible that there's someone else in the flight radius who is. Imidacloprid is also approved for uses ranging from flea control on dogs and cats (for which it's sold as Advantage, over the counter) to breaking up termite colonies, with little or no restrictions. If you find a termite mound in your backyard, you can simply go on eBay or down to the local hardware store, get a big ol' vat of imidacloprid, and dump it on the ground. And so it's nearly impossible to keep track of who's using imidacloprid where, and for what purpose.

You can buy it at Wal-Mart & Home Depot. And you know what Joe Consumer is like. He thinks a little is good so a lot is better. They're not following the directions on the bottle.

In the last three years, they've just been pouring this chemical on crops. It's approved for everything....All I'm saying is, you go buy this stuff to use on aphids or whatnot, and the little insert from the chemical company says straight out that it, one, makes bugs quit eating, two, induces memory loss and confusion, and, three, gives them a nervous system disorder. And that's exactly what's happening to bees. But then I'm just a dumb beekeeper who's been keeping bees for years. What do I know? Does not seem to hard to make the connection if you use a little common sense..

Well surely, knowing that bees are such an important part of the ecosystem, not to mention the economy, chemical companies and farmers alike wouldn't just indiscriminately soak the countryside with a chemical that turns both bees and pests into convulsing, gibbering zombies, would they? There must be a fail-safe in there to prevent killing all the bees.

No, says Jerry Hayes, of the CCD Working Group. "Imidacloprid kills bugs, insects, good and bad alike. It works on bees in the exact same way it works on all other insects."

So did someone drop the ball?

Hayes pauses, weighing his words. He is too nice a guy to put it just so. "Someone didn't look closely enough," he says.

This isn't as surprising as it initially seems, considering the process by which a pesticide comes to market. The EPA often doesn't even test a pesticide before it goes on the shelf; it entrusts the chemical companies themselves to oversee safety testing on their own products, almost always rubber-stamping the results without verifying them independently, says Laura Hepting of the D.C.-based nonprofit Beyond Pesticides, which monitors the pesticide industry. "The large majority of the data is provided by the companies themselves," she says. "The EPA has a panel that reviews this information, but they only do their own tests if a red flag pops up. But this data can be--and often is--skewed. Not only results, but the procedures that produce those results, can be tweaked. There are loopholes."

The studies the chemical industry had to submit to gain approval for imidacloprid merely required demonstration that the levels of the chemical found in the nectar and pollen of treated plants were "sub lethal" to bees. Strictly speaking, this is true. For instance, imidacloprid can make bees stop grooming themselves, which allows lethal fungal infections to thrive in bee colonies--in this case one could truthfully, if disingenuously, say that the fungus killed the bees, not imidacloprid. You could say the same in cases when impaired bees can't find their way home and die of exposure, that it was the elements that killed them, not the pesticide. When imidacloprid causes the bee's to jitter in their dance, sending worker bees off in the wrong direction and they get lost.. It's bad directions to blame, not the imidacloprid. Also a point to think about.. "sub lethal" in the nectar and pollen of treated plants.. What do the bees do with the nectar? They simmer it down, kinda like maple sap into maple syrup, they simmer the nectar down into honey. This "boils off" the water and concentrates the toxins.. again, some common sense..

We're wasting our time picking on poor little old chemical companies when we should be out there lobbying for a ban on fungi, bad directions and weather!

So why not just ban imidacloprid? Because Big Chemical (due to corporate consolidation, six corporations--Syngenta, Bayer, Monsanto, DuPont, BASF, and Dow--control almost the entire global market for crop protection) is, well, big. According to Bayer's 2006 Annual Report, Bayer CropScience sales of imidacloprid pesticides topped â‚¬560 million (about $746 million). That's about 10 percent of Bayer CropScience's approximately $7.5 billion in total sales, making imidacloprid products, according to the company, the world's No. 1 best-selling pesticide.

With so much money at stake, any ban on imidacloprid would be an uphill battle. Even after France's government shut down use of the pesticide, Bayer insisted it was harmless to bees and went so far as to file a lawsuit against a French beekeeper for derogatory remarks he made in the media about Gaucho. (The suit was dismissed by a judge in 2003.)

Bayer's position on imidacloprid had not changed when I contacted them a couple weeks ago for comment. "When used according to label instructions, imidacloprid does not kill bees," Greg Coffey, a Bayer spokesperson tells me when I ask him flat out if his company's product is causing CCD. Sounding somewhat hopeful, he adds, "in fact, current research indicates a number of non chemical causes may be to blame."

But respected experts in the bee industry I've talked to say that imidacloprid does kill bees, and the way it works--disrupting a neural receptor in the insect nervous system --suggests that it has the same effect on all insects, bees or otherwise. It's simply working as it was made to and as per the Bayer website says it would.

Coffey sighs. "When used according to label instructions, imidacloprid does not kill bees," he says again, slower this time.

That's not how Henri Clement, the president of the National Union of French Apiculture who was instrumental in getting Gaucho outlawed in France, sees it. Although the ban went into place in 1999, he wrote in an e-mail, "we still saw effects in 2005 and 2006, as it remains in the ground for a very long time." (Studies have found that imidacloprid can have a half-life of 1 to 3 years in soil and can still be present decades later.) So one full dose this year, and one full dose next = 1.5 or more for the second year.. 1.75+ for year 3 and 1.875+ the next, you can do the math and see where this is going to end up. He also reported that Bayer is trying to get other neonicotinoid pesticides, which work in the very same manner as Gaucho and would be equally as potentially lethal to bees, approved for use in France. At the same time, a recent Bayer presentation claims studies have found that imidacloprid "even in the absence of infestation with insects, exerts a supportive, stress-reducing, protective effect" on plants. A cynic might suspect the company is trying to position imidacloprid as less of a poison and more of a supplement or vitamin for crops--a subtle redefinition that would make it infinitely harder to ban.

When I contacted EPA for its response, a spokesperson forwarded me a copy of its standard statement on CCD:

EPA is coordinating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, academia, professional organizations, and beekeepers to identify the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder, or CCD, a massive die-off of adult bees in established honeybee colonies. Though agricultural records indicate that sudden honeybee colony collapse is not a new phenomenon, it is imperative that we learn the cause and do what we can to prevent it. The current scientific consensus is that the cause of CCD is unknown. EPA and USDA have met with insect scientists and beekeeping professionals to discuss leading theories. A report of the results of that meeting is being prepared by USDA, and scientists around the nation and the globe are moving forward with research to test the various theories. EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment and will continue to work with USDA and others to assess this potential threat. If there are actions identified that EPA can take to prevent CCD, EPA stands ready to take the appropriate steps.

When I point out that this statement doesn't specifically address anything, Enesta Jones, the EPA press officer, has no further response.

Whether or not my conspiracy theories hold water, if imidacloprid really is killing bees, we're left with at least two equally discomfiting possibilities. One: Big Chemical failed to adequately test imidacloprid and unknowingly released a pesticide that's killing the only natural pollinators we have left. Or, two: Big Chemical knew imidacloprid would kill off our primary pollinators and released it anyway.

If the latter seems puzzling, consider this question: If all the bees died out, how much would Big Chemical, the global leaders in genetically modified crops, stand to gain from a sudden demand for self-pollinating genetically modified crops? Again, apply a little common sense and think about it. Very few things in life just "happen". So to look for who might be to blame, it might be faster and easier to look for who's to GAIN...

Bees are sensitive creatures. They're easily irritated, They hate noise and vibration and bananas.. Yes bananas. They smell like their alarm pheromone. Please don't eat a banana right before going to check your hives..

But it's not bananas making bees crazy on a global scale. The heart of the question seems to be: Is CCD something correctable--if we stop trucking bees cross-country and feeding them Oreo stuffing and having them pollinate crops chocked full of pesticides, will they stop dying? Or have we set something larger in motion that doesn't just affect the bees directly under human stewardship, but bees everywhere? And who's next? Other insects, mammals, and eventually humans? Think about the mercury in seafood.. It can suck, really really suck to be at the top of the food chain..

Keith Tignor, the state apiarist for Virginia, says research on whether there have been parallel die-offs in other insect populations has just now started. The early signs are not good. In the D.C. region alone, naturalists and researchers have observed an increasing number of fish die-offs within the past several years--tens of thousands of dead fish washing up onshore, some killed by dead water or pollution, but others with no discernible cause of death except a mysterious weakening of the immune system. The same symptoms have also been observed in snails, butterflies, birds, and trees across the nation. If these phenomena are related to CCD and continue to spread across other species, well, that's quite probably all she wrote for the human race.

Please, if you have any thoughts to share on either side of this or any beekeeping issue, please share it here. I have room for and welcome all points of view and comments.

TTFN

Richard
6/12/2007

CCD and My thoughts...

2009-05-16T07:09:00Z

After reading varied articles and the following email from Victoria, looking at the links and other googled info, including stuff from Bayer itself, I really wonder if this is not the main cause of the problem with CCD. IMIDACLOPRID.. It's marketed under many differant trade names. It is used alot in corn from what I read, even the seeds come sprayed with it before the farmer even gets it.. Reading what this stuff does and how it works, it makes the "pests" forget if it does not kill them fast, forget where home is, sounds like it could explain alot of where the bee's go, No? they fly off to find pollen & nectar and forget how to get home, forget what they are doing, gives them jumpy and gittery, has to mess up the bee dance. What do most beekeepers feed there
bees.. a syrup of high frutose corn syrup..(I don't) Does anyone know if this stuff transfers into that? the bees sure could be doubling up on the toxin if it does... Not to mention, Ok, I'll mention it.. , The water supply, a run off of the stuff the fields are sprayed with.
Just another thought from a lowly bee keeper in a veil.
Could many bee keepers be making it worse with the chemical treatments for mites being added to this? I have not had any problem as of yet, knock on a wooden hive body.. I do everything organic and natural and have really stayed on top of the little mite issues that have come up. BUT I do ask that you look this stuff up and think about it, make up your own mind.

Thanks and TTFN,
Richard Waite.
Black Cat Honey & Products 603-392-0008
Parker Street
Winchester NH 03470
3/16/2007

RE:
From: Victoria MacPhail <vmacphai@uoguelph.ca>
To: pollinator@coevolution.org
Subject: [Pollinator] Is CCD really just starting in 2005/2006?
Previouswork on imidacloprid?
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:58:05 -0400

I have been following the latest theme with interest, and had been wondering when imidacloprid would be raised.

When I was an undergraduate student in 2002, I worked with Dr. Jim Kemp and Dick Rogers in Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick (Eastern Canada) investigating possible reasons (incl. diseases, food sources, pesticides, management practices, among others) behind the disappearance and overall decrease in honeybee populations in the Maritimes. What had initated their research in the previous year (2001) was the concern that imidacloprid, trade name Admire, used in furrow in potato fields, persisted in the soil and came up in the clover flowers two years later, which then killed off the foraging bees. I believe a similar concern with imidacloprid had been raised in France under the trade name Gaucho and used on sunflowers.

My understanding is that beekeepers in the Maritimes noticed in the late 1990s or early 2000s that bees were disappearing/dying and colonies crashing unexpectedly, with some beekeepers having limited losses and some having almost total losses. They heard reports from France of the similar symptoms, said that that was their problem too, accused imidacloprid and the producer (Bayer), who then got Jim and Dick involved in the investigation.

I found an old newspaper article on-line saying essentially the same thing: May 25, 2002 - National Post, www.safe2use.com/ca-ipm/02-05-27.htm. You could probably find
other sources too.
The background information I had heard and learned about in 2002, and in 2003 when I was only peripherally involved in the project, sounds just like what is supposedly only just happening this year in the US. Now, I am new to the field and may be way off base, but to me this
sounds like the same thing, so why are most of these reports saying this is a new phenomenon, happening either only this year or maybe last year too? Are these two different problems/scenarios, or is the media just having a field day with it this year?

Anyway, just another thought to mull over.

Victoria MacPhail

MSc Candidate
Dept. of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
vmacphai@uoguelph.ca
lab) 519-824-4120 ext. 56243
fax) 519-837-0442

More Imidacloprid info & links

2009-05-16T07:08:00Z

IMIDACLOPRID

Imidacloprid is a relatively new, systemic insecticide chemically related to the tobacco toxin nicotine. Like nicotine, it acts on the nervous system. Worldwide, it is considered to be one of the insecticides used in the largest volume. It has a wide diversity of uses: in agriculture, on turf, on pets, and for household pests. Symptoms of exposure to imidacloprid include apathy, labored breathing, incoordination, emaciation, and convulsions. Longer-term exposures cause reduced ability to gain weight and thyroid lesions. In studies of how imidacloprid affects reproduction, exposure of pregnant laboratory animals resulted in more frequent miscarriages and smaller offspring. An agricultural imidacloprid product increased the incidence of a kind of genetic damage called DNA adducts. Imidacloprid is acutely toxic to some bird species, including sparrows, quail, canaries, and pigeons. Partridges have been poisoned and killed by agricultural use of imidacloprid. It has also caused eggshell thinning. The growth and size of shrimp are affected by imidacloprid concentrations of less than one part per billion (ppb). Shrimp and crustaceans are killed by concentration of less than 60 ppb. Imidacloprid is persistent. In a field test in Minnesota, the concentration of imidacloprid did not decrease for a year following treatment. It is also mobile in soil, so is considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to be a potential water contaminant.

The development of resistance to imidacloprid by pest insects is a significant concern. In Michigan potato fields, the Colorado potato beetle developed resistance to imidacloprid after just two years of use.
Please follow this link for a full write up of this:
http://www.pesticide.org/imidacloprid.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/factsheets/thiacloprid.pdf a newer stronger version of Imidacloprid.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/PI117
http://www.bijensterfte.nl/nl/node/2
http://www.livingwithbugs.com/merit_insecticide.html
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0022-0493(2008)101%5B784:LASEOI%5D2.0.CO%3B2
http://www.coursehero.com/file/636383/imidacloprid/
http://nlquery.epa.gov/epasearch/epasearch?areaname=&areacontacts=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.epa.gov%2Fepahome%2Fcomments.htm&areasearchurl=&result_template=epafiles_default.xsl&action=filtersearch&filter=&typeofsearch=epa&querytext=imidacloprid Lots here to thumb thru, tho wirth the read. You can narrow your search as needed.

Newest news!

2009-03-26T14:15:00Z

Newest News! The real website is being redesigned and will be back shortly, a change in the phone number to 603-392-0008, finally a New Hampshire number... and Honey Soda is here..
No Corn Syrups, No High Fructose Corn Syrups, no Sugar, no artificial flavor or color.
So far, 3 flavors..
1 WoodLand Brew made with Dark Fall WildFlower Honey, RootBeer extract and a hint of Wintergreen and Anise..

2 Honey Cream made with Dark Fall WildFlower Honey, Natural Cream soda flavoring with a hint of Vanilla

3 Lemonade made with Summer WildFlower Honey and natural lemon juice and extract.

All are bottled in glass returnable & re-usable bottles, better for the environment..
Retails for $2.25 a bottle cases of 24 for $48, all prices plus refundable deposit.
We're back to normal hours, which are...
We're open

Mon - Tuesday	By Appointment or chance
Tues - Thurs	11 am - 7 pm
Fri & Sat	11 am - 8 pm
Sundays	By chance or Appointment

I don't usually get political, but this effects everyone here in the US...
I ask that you please have a look and decide for yourself.
http://the912project.com/

New Hampshire Made...

2008-06-01T22:21:00Z

Our newest affiliation New Hampshire Made. We're proud to be a member.

We also set up an online at www.NHfarms.com under, Go figure.. Honey..
We also are proud to have our products carried online at: www.FarmhouseWares.com
and in person by:
Nate at Acadia Herbals, 2 Conz Street (Maplewood Shops) Northampton Mass 01060 (WWW.AcadiaHerbals.com) 413-584-8198 Nate has the best supply of organic and all natural herbs, spices, teas and the like you can imagine, ever in the area, he is well worth the stop.
We're also at varied farm stands thru-out New England, We're happy to mention them by name, if they drop us a line or give us a call so we know it's ok to mention you.

All of our gift baskets now proudly feature baskets from Peterboro Basket Company www.Peterborobasket.com

----Buy local and everyone wins----

Olde Time Raw Honey – $7.00 OR 2 for $12.00 8 oz
Leave your empty & cork & take a full one, save $2.00.

Olde Time Raw Honey – $15-20.00 (depends on the flavor of the honey, see below) 44 oz.
Leave your empty & cork & take a full one, save $5.00.

Small Olde Time Raw Honey – $4.00 4 oz
Leave your empty & cork & take a full one, save $1.00.

"Chunk" honey, Raw Honey and honey comb – $12.50 or 2 for $20.00 22 oz
Comes in a handled mug, great gift or use as drinking glass

Honey Comb – $8.00 or 2 for $15.00 12-14 oz

Raw Honey Hex Jar – $6.50 10 oz

Honey Apple Butter Toast Spread – $5.00 8 oz

Honey Apple-Pear Butter Toast Spread – $5.00 8 oz

Honey Cinnamon Toast Spread – $7.00 10 oz Hex Jar

Creamed Honey-Lemon or Orange Spread – $5.00 8 oz

Creamed Honey-Black Raspberry Spread – $5.00 8 oz

Hand Made Soaps– $5.00 or 3 for $12.00 in many varied scents. A very long lasting soap.

Honey Tomato Pasta Sauce – $4.00

Honey BBQ sauce – $5.00 18 oz

Honey Teriyaki sauce – $5.00 18 oz

Herb infused vinegar – $3.50 18 oz

Most of the honey can be gotten in RaspBerry Bloom, BlackBerry Bloom, BlueBerry Blossom, GoldenRod, BuckWheat, Red & White Clover, Spring WildFlower, Summer WildFlower & Fall WildFlower.

Please email us with your order and the address to ship it to and we'll get you a total.
We do try to keep most things in stock, but do have times where we will be out of something.

We also stock a full line of beekeeping gear, hives ($11) Med supers ($10), frames, foundation, tools and more all quality made things at competitive prices.

We're open

Mondays	By Appointment or chance
Tues - Thurs	11 am - 7 pm
Fri & Sat	11 am - 8 pm
Sundays	By Appointment or chance

Black Cat Honey
62 Parker Street
Winchester NH 03470
Phone 413-626-7136
Thanks for your business...

Important notes about us...

2008-01-06T20:07:00Z

This is kinda an FYI, All of our honey is hand bottled, hand labeled, hand packed and the olde time bottles, hand sealed with beeswax from our hives. We do think the way it was, personally, long before big machines and corporations. Our sauces, spreads and preserves are made on an old, pre-1900 wood fired kitchen cook stove. Why? You might ask.. Because it tastes better. Grandma and Great Grandma did it that way, and it was good enough for them. Please come try the difference...

Store is now OPEN

2007-01-02T16:22:00Z

We're headquartered on Parker Street in Winchester NH. We now have a small store open with honey, honey products, beeswax candles, great gift baskets and country crafts along with coffee & tea. Along with an ever growing supply of beekeeping supplies. No, the above is not the store, but a fair set-up.
   Our honey is also carried by:
Nate at Acadia Herbals, 2 Conz Street (Maplewood Shops) Northampton Mass 01060 (WWW.AcadiaHerbals.com) 413-584-8198 Nate has the best supply of organic and all natural herbs, spices, teas and the like you can imagine, ever in the area, he is well worth the stop.
Were also online now at: www.FarmhouseWares.com
All of our gift baskets now proudly feature baskets from Peterboro Basket Company www.Peterborobasket.com
and the new HoneyBee web ring below...
We have 36 hives, spread over 3 counties and 2 states, heading into this fall, mainly in the Winchester area, tho some are spread out in Cheshire Co NH, and Franklin & Hampshire Co Mass. We're looking across the river to VT next.

We're looking for farmers with land that needs bee's to pollinate, so if thats you, please give us a call and we can work something out. The barter system is a wonderful thing.

Any ????'s? Please drop us a line, call, email or note by most anything 'cept carrier pigeon.
    TTFN
      Richard & PupSter E-Mail to: info@BlackCatHoney.com
      Black Cat Honey   Call: 413-626-7136
       Stop by or send an olde time mail to:
Black Cat Honey & Products
Parker Street,
Winchester NH 03470

This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here.

Hello & Thanks for visiting

2006-03-06T03:10:00Z

   Hello and Thanks for Visiting.
This is the newest expansion of Myself & My cat PupSter's honey venture.
   ~~~ Black Cat Honey products ~~~
    We have a variety of honeys, all raw and all natural, never processed, all natural beeswax candles, both rolled and molded tapers, a honey BBQ sauce, a honey teriyaki sauce and strawberry, blueberry and both red and black raspberry homemade preserves. "flavors" of honey are Wild Flower, Apple Blossom, Raspberry Blossom and a very limited edition Old Garden rose. We'll be getting more info on these as I figure out how to set up the website. Everything we do is all natural, mostly organic, never anything artificial and surely no corn syrup. The only sweetener used is raw honey. The sauces & preserves are created on a pre-1900's wood fired kitchen cookstove, this gives them a flavor like Great Grandma used to make.

Please email us at info@blackCatHoney.com or call us directly at 413-626-7136 anytime for more information.

Thanks and TTFN.
   Rich & the "PupSter"

Snail Mail: Richard & "PupSter"    413-626-7136
                  Parker Street
                Winchester New Hampshire 03470