tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-216231402024-03-14T06:43:21.284-07:00The Barefoot BeekeeperChemical-free, low-impact, sustainable, natural beekeeping using top bar hives: a minimalist approach to beekeeping without synthetic chemical inputs, expensive equipment or wax foundation.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-27575956821674174552019-04-04T06:14:00.001-07:002019-04-04T06:14:09.627-07:00<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Defending Britain Against the Asian Hornet</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-a2345d1f-7fff-f3f5-79b2-227040c49441" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Vespa velutina,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> the Asian Yellow-Legged Hornet, is an invasive, non-native species, originating from China, that arrived in France in 2004. It spread rapidly and is now established throughout France, Belgium, northern Spain and Portugal, as well as parts of Italy. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It a highly effective predator of insects, including honey bees and other beneficial species.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> Reports from France say that some beekeepers are losing up to 50% of their hives each year, and wild bees and other insects are also being predated in large numbers, with obvious implications for native insectivorous species, such as birds and bats.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In France, as many as 10 nests of V. velutina have been found within a radius of just 600 metres.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> It is a highly persistent hunter and one of the most adept at catching bees on the wing.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> It is also likely to cause significant losses to other native insect species, with serious implications for bird populations, already in decline.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">All the predictions were that the Asian hornet would make its first appearance in Britain somewhere along the south coast, but in fact it was found far from the south coast or any obvious route of entry. This shows that we cannot take for granted how or where it will try to establish itself.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Prior to 2018, the Asian hornet was found and positively identified (and nests subsequently destroyed) in two locations in Britain: Gloucestershire in 2016 and most recently in North Devon in 2017. During 2018, there were 13 positive sightings, as far apart as Lancashire and Kent</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> and six nests were destroyed. There have been a few other, isolated cases of individual specimens being found. It’s pathway into the country remains unknown, but has clearly not followed predicted trajectories.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">As of April 2019, we await the first reports, at the time when any surviving queens will be building their primary nests.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It is known that V. velutina can fly greater distances than the minimum 38km across the English Channel. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Other possible means of entry include:</span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Imports of timber and bark may conceal fertilized queens</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Imports of pottery, especially for the horticulture trade (this is believed to have been its route into France)</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Imports of soil, compost and potted plants</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Imports of fruit</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Imports of bees</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Fertilised queens, ready for hibernation, may take refuge in caravans, camper vans, trucks and cars travelling from continental Europe back to the UK, especially in September and October.</span></div>
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</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Given the rapidity of its spread throughout France, which has more than twice the land area of Britain, once established here it is likely to become widespread and naturalised within a few years. Our climate is unlikely to cause it any significant difficulties, since we are in a similar temperature zone to that of its origins in China.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The Asian hornet is a very real and present danger, not only to British honeybees, but to other bee species, butterflies, moths and more or less all other insects, with implications for the pollination of flowering crops and wild flowers and for all species that depend on insects for food, especially insectivorous birds and bats.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If we do nothing, then sooner rather than later, the Asian hornet will become established in Britain. Further incursions are extremely likely during 2019, given that nobody has any idea where they may next arrive (sentinel apiaries at “high risk entry points” having so far been in entirely the wrong places), or indeed, whether there are already hibernating queens here waiting to emerge and begin nest building.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Current Strategy</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There seems to be little published in public view that suggests that this imminent invasion is being taken seriously, with the FERA/National Bee Unit website emphasising the importance of hornet identification, but saying little about what they plan to do to prevent its incursion or how they may deal with it should it become established.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> Such information is only to be found on the website of the Non-Native Species Secretariat in the form of an Action Plan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">, which lays out the responsibilities of various government officers in the event of an outbreak and describes in general terms what action would be taken.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">However, a gaping hole in the official strategy becomes apparent when we note that in 2017 there were no less than 4,500 reports of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">V. velutina</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> to the NBU </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">by beekeepers</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">, of which just </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">one</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> was verified (Woolacombe, North Devon) and then only after the beekeeper in question had made considerable efforts to photograph the hornet in order to convince the authorities that he had not been mistaken, as they initially told him he most probably was. This raises the obvious question of how many reports dismissed as false may have in fact been accurate, and - assuming (on no particular grounds) that 95% or more of such reports were indeed false as claimed - also calls into question the ability of the average beekeeper to correctly differentiate the Asian hornet from our native hornet, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Vespa crabro</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">, which is distinctly different. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">We should question the wisdom of any action plan that seems to rely almost exclusively for its effective deployment on the identification of an exotic, hitherto unseen insect by untrained, unpaid and apparently incompetent people.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It seems that the NBU and the BBKA (British Bee Keepers Association) have failed to communicate effectively with beekeepers regarding the seriousness of this threat and as a result, beekeepers have failed to familiarise themselves with the literature and, in many - if not most - cases, cannot successfully differentiate between a native (and largely harmless) European hornet and the invasive, aggressive Asian hornet.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Another issue arises, which is the question of why has DEFRA apparently made little or effort to ensure that the wider public (i.e. non-beekeepers) is aware of the imminent threat, given the Asian hornet’s propensity for making its home in urban and suburban areas and aggressively defending its nest. Hornet stings are decidedly painful and given the numbers present in a nest, it is likely that children may be put at risk from attack. A number of deaths have occurred in France, most likely from anaphylaxis.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">This is clearly not just a potential problem for beekeepers, but is likely to adversely affect a wide range of human activities, including food production, should there be a significant impact on pollination. It also has serious implications for wild bees and many other native species, especially birds and bats.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Further into the Action Plan, we find a good deal of detail about the various meetings that will be organised following an outbreak, and activities that apparently include:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Establishing a battle rhythm for the outbreak; </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Developing recommendations as necessary for Ministers on strategic direction of response and control policies based on scientific advice from the NBU and Defra’s Chief Scientific Adviser and Plant & Bee Health Evidence Team; </span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Considering impacts of the outbreak; </span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Agreeing communication and stakeholder engagement plans;</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">There follows a comprehensive description of the subsequent action on the ground, involving an unspecified number of staff, majoring on inter- and intra-organisational details, seemingly designed to keep people busy filling in forms for weeks. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In the increasingly likely event of several incidents occurring more-or-less simultaneously across the country, it seems highly likely that the hard-pressed NBU bee inspectors and their DEFRA colleagues will rapidly become mired in bureaucracy at the expense of practical and effective action.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Perhaps the most worrying - and revealing - paragraph in the Action Plan is this one:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">37.On receipt of the report(s) from the LDCC, the NDCC will make an assessment on whether it is an isolated outbreak which may be contained. It will then make a recommendation for the SRO and LGD meeting who will then confirm if eradication should be attempted. Isolated means that Asian hornets have only been found in a very limited number of sites in a restricted geographical area (and data from the searches shows a high probability of success in eradication). </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">No parameters are given for the criteria on which these decisions will be made, which implies that a good deal of “subjective judgement” will be in play. In other words, as soon as the authorities are no longer able to cope with reported outbreaks, they plan to give up the fight.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Beekeepers have been placed in the front line of this battle with little or no preparation or training and no actual weapons. They are being expected to carry out scouting and surveillance operations behind enemy lines and report their findings to a remote HQ, which is more likely than not to distrust and dismiss their findings, while giving no support to beekeepers who could potentially deal with nests themselves, if they had some training.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What Can Be Done - Publicity and Education</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">While honeybees and their keepers will most likely be the first to feel the impact of the Asian hornet invasion, this is a much bigger issue than just another pressure on bees.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Action is needed to improve public awareness of the potential dangers associated with an unchecked invasion of Asian hornets into Britain. While they may to many people be no more visible than our native hornet, it is likely that they will cause problems for others, particularly outdoor workers, and there is little doubt that they will have a severe impact on our valuable populations of pollinators, including, but not exclusively, our honeybees, which make up approximately one third of the Asian hornet’s diet. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Outdoor workers especially, including farmers, construction workers and both amateur and professional beekeepers, along with bird watchers, walkers, gardeners and other nature lovers, need to be able to spot and identify this insect and differentiate it unambiguously from the native European hornet, not only in order to </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">expedite essential action, but also to avoid unnecessary destruction of V. crabro nests. Awareness of the need and the means for reporting sightings needs to be increased considerably, or opportunities will be missed. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">It is far from clear whether DEFRA has any intention of stepping up its efforts to inform the general public - or, indeed, beekeepers - of the potential disaster that is about to unfold. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">What Can Be Done - Technology</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Given that beekeepers - like it or not - find themselves in the front line, it seems to me that they should at least be properly armed. The experience of Martyn Hocking, who discovered the hornets in North Devon</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> suggests that photographs are essential if a report is to be taken seriously, so a smartphone or digital camera is a requirement. Spotters should also familiarise themselves with simple methods of taking a bearing from the location at which hornets are seen, in the direction of flight, which will considerably assist nest location. GPS or OS map locations are also important. An app is available for cellphones to make reporting simple.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">All of these simple procedures should be well within the scope of most people. However, there is a relatively new technology that can potentially play a significant role both in locating hornet nests and possibly destroying them: the radio controlled ‘drone’, also called quadcopter, hexacopter or octacopter, according to the number of motors fitted. These are now available in a somewhat bewildering variety of shapes and sizes, ranging from tiny, pocket-size toys to hefty, flying platforms designed for cinema-quality video work, civil engineering inspection and even aerial crop-spraying (not yet legal in the UK). Many drones carry cameras, streaming live video to the operator, and could be fitted with thermal imaging cameras, which would be capable of locating hornet nests out of sight of the ground in tall trees.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Drones have two potential applications in this context:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Use of smaller drones to track hornets - most likely by means of trapping a live specimen and attaching a small tracking transmitter (as is routinely done by insect researchers already) - and locating their nests, is obvious. Infra-red cameras can be used to locate nests from above, where visibility from ground level is restricted.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> The possibility of using them for actual nest destruction is there, but a lot of work needs to be done before it can be viewed as a routine procedure. Large drones, fitted with ingenious, home-made gadgets, have successfully been used in France to inject powdered insecticide directly into hornet nests</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">. </span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Clearly, while injecting a toxic substance directly into an enclosed nest is likely to be effective at killing hornets, the residue is also likely to be as effective at killing non-target insects, as well as birds and bats. Other possibilities for nest destruction include the injection of a gas or vapour in order to kill the inhabitants without leaving a toxic residue. Carbon dioxide and steam are both under consideration.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Action is Needed Now</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The lesson from France is that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">early action is essential</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">, before the problem gets out of hand. We only have one chance to defeat this pest, which is to prevent it from becoming established. I understand that work is underway to find long-term solutions, including genetic engineering of one sort or another, but there are no guarantees of success and meanwhile this insect could inflict devastating damage on our bee population and aggravate the already serious decline of birds.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">While government officials will, no doubt, do their best within the constraints imposed on them by budgets and manpower, the scope of their actions is highly unlikely to be adequate to deal with a persistent, adaptable invader. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Opportunities to work alongside the NBU seem currently to be virtually non-existent, as they are adamant that “it is no longer possible for beekeepers to accompany bee inspectors, under any circumstances” (quoted from an NBU representative, speaking at a meeting called by beekeepers to discuss the Asian hornet threat, Saturday January 20th 2018). Therefore, we need to educate and equip ourselves, share knowledge and experience, and make use of the technology that has recently become available and accessible.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><br /><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Proposal</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">An informal, but well-informed and competent task force needs to be organised, comprising motivated individuals with technical skills (including academics, professionals and enthusiastic amateurs), who can pool knowledge and work on a variety of approaches to the location, identification and destruction of Asian hornets. Some funding will be needed to prime the pump, and it may be possible to “crowd-fund” the project once we have something to show for our efforts.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">In practical terms, we need to to contact and, where practical, visit people with appropriate skills and experience and report findings to an accessible online location. I have made a start by setting up a this page on FaceBook</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> to begin the process of communication and coordination.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Work needs to be started on identification, tracking, location and nest destruction protocols. Specifically:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Given that Asian hornets are most likely to be seen around beehives, we need to develop methods of identifying them quickly and effectively, using some of the range of sensors currently available. Most promising sensors so far are: colour recognition; sound detection and filtering; ultrasound; thermal signature.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Live trapping will be the key to our ability to track insects back to their nest, once they have been tagged. Some work is being done elsewhere (Italy, I believe) using harmonic radar, but this may prove too expensive for our purposes. It may be possible to attach small radio tags (RFIDs) to a hornet without significantly impairing its ability to fly, enabling it to be tracked by a drone equipped with a receiving device. This is a potential low-cost solution.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Infra-red cameras mounted on drones have successfully been used in Portugal to locate hornet nests where visual observations from the ground proved ineffective. This technology is available at moderate cost. Harmonic radar shows promise, as this is already used experimentally to track some insects, including hornets.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: lower-alpha; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Various means of destroying nests are currently used in France, including shotguns, high pressure water spraying and injection of pesticide directly into the nest using relatively large drones. The height and inaccessibility of nests often make all but the latter impossible, while it is clearly undesirable to fill a nest with pesticides, which will leak into the environment as the nest collapses, with considerable collateral damage to other species, possibly including humans. I suggest we investigate the use of non-polluting gases, such as carbon dioxide, and steam. Either of these could be delivered to the target using suitable drones.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">The ethos of this project is very much one of “open source” (sharing experimental procedures, coding and data freely) to enable full participation by anyone who is willing and able to play a part.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Funding</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">I have already committed my limited resources to this project, alongside my other beekeeping activities, both in terms of time and money. I already have most of the tools and equipment I need and have made preliminary experiments with sensors and single-board computers (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc). I have made a start on identifying others with complementary skills, as team work will be important.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">However, although I have time and technical skills, I do not have the means to buy the equipment needed to carry out the vital, real-world experiments with drones, infra-red cameras and tracking devices.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">If there are indeed hibernating queen hornets already present in the UK, they will already be building their primary nests, so we need to move quickly.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Philip Chandler</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Director</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #444444; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Friends of the Bees CIC</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Map showing spread of V. velutina since 2004 - </span><a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=1jRfoi4oF6GmiGRgbXuD71Qpbw8s&ll=45.484583648950355%2C-5.105638737042227&z=6" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&mid=1jRfoi4oF6GmiGRgbXuD71Qpbw8s&ll=45.484583648950355%2C-5.105638737042227&z=6</span></a></div>
<br />The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-89414369237455941012013-01-09T10:02:00.003-08:002013-01-09T10:02:47.772-08:00New book - Learning From Bees: a philosophy of natural beekeeping<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Need a good read about bees while yours are tucked up in their cosy hives for the winter?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have just published a new book - only about 23,000 words this time - which is available as a <a href="http://offthebookshelf.com/authors/80-philip-chandler" target="_blank">paperback</a> and in all regular <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264879" target="_blank">ebook formats</a>, including <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264879" target="_blank">Kindle</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Here's the Contents page, just to whet your appetite:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Contents</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5 Bees and Flowers: a Perfect Partnership</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">11 The Nature of Bees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">23 What is Natural Beekeeping?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">31 Balanced Beekeeping</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">38 The Importance of Drones</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">42 Do You Really Want to Keep Bees?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">47 The Beatrix Potter Syndrome</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">55 The Bigger Picture</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">60 Sustaining The Honeybee</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">66 Asking Questions</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">69 Advice to Inventive Beekeepers</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">71 Inner Beekeeping</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">76 Learning From Bees</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">80 Ten Things You Can Do</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-3101717279423210692011-11-24T04:27:00.000-08:002011-11-24T04:27:51.584-08:00Bayer's top-selling pesticides continue to cause bee deaths worldwide3.- 6. December: Permanent Peoples´ Tribunal at Bangalore/India<br />
<br />
23 November 2011 -- The worrisome deaths of bee populations worldwide is likely to continue as the German agrochemical company Bayer remains unrestricted in its manufacture and sale of neonicotinoid pesticides.<br />
<br />
Bayer's accountability in the phenomenon known as the Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is among the cases to be heard at the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) Session on Agrochemical Transnational Corporations (TNCs), a landmark international opinion tribunal that will try the six largest agrochemical TNCs for various human rights violations, to be held from December 3 to 6, 2011.<br />
<br />
"Bee deaths are a global problem, so it is crucial to discuss this issue and to find solutions on an international level. It is encouraging that the PPT as a global initiative is addressing this problem, which is both an environmental and an economic threat," said Philipp Mimkes, spokesperson of the Coalition Against Bayer Dangers, a Germany-based public interest group.<br />
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Mimkes revealed that imidacloprid (product name Gaucho) and clothianidin (product name Poncho) remain Bayer's top-selling pesticides, despite the fact that this class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, is strongly linked to CCD.<br />
<br />
In 2010, Gaucho sales were valued at US$ 820 million while Poncho sales were valued at US$ 260 million. Gaucho ranks first among Bayer's best-selling pesticide, while Poncho ranks seventh. "This is the reason why Bayer, despite the serious environmental damage they cause, is fighting tooth and nail against any application prohibition of neonicotinoids," said Mimkes.<br />
<br />
In Europe, many dangerous uses of neonicotinoids have been banned. Germany, Italy, France and Slovenia have stopped the use of Gaucho and Poncho as a seed dressing for corn, their most important application. However, the use of these pesticides is unrestricted in many countries, including the U.S. where one-third of the bee population has died every year since 2006.<br />
<br />
Honeybees pollinate over 70 out of 100 crops that provide 90% of the world's food. They pollinate most fruits and vegetables-including apples, oranges, strawberries, onions and carrots. The declining bee population thus has potentially serious impacts on food security and livelihood of farmers. It can also affect the range of food crops that can be grown and consequently the nutritional value and variety of our food supply.<br />
<br />
Decline of bee populations<br />
CCD is used to described the drastic decline of bee populations across the world, which started in the mid-1990s. This was also the same period when neonicotinoids were introduced in the market. In 1994, honeybee populations started dying in France, and later in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Poland, England, Slovenia, Greece, Belgium, Canada, U.S., Brazil, Japan, and India.<br />
Neonicotinoids are a class of pesticides that are chemically related to nicotine. They are taken up by a plant's vascular system and released through pollen, nectar and water droplets from which bees then forage and drink.<br />
<br />
While CCD is likely caused by a combination of many factors including the stresses of industrial beekeeping and loss of habitat, many scientists believe that exposure to pesticides is a critical factor. Neonicotinoids are of particular concern because they have cumulative, sublethal effects on bees and other insect pollinators. These effects include neurobehavioral and immune system disruptions that correspond to CCD symptoms.<br />
<br />
CCD has severe impacts on the livelihoods of beekeepers around the globe. In the U.S., where beekeeping industry is valued at US$ 15 billion, losses due to CCD are estimated to be from 29 to 36 percent per year.<br />
<br />
In 1991, Bayer began producing imidacloprid, which is now one of the most widely used insecticides for field and horticultural crops, especially maize, sunflower, and rape. In 1999, however, France banned imidacloprid as a seed dressing for sunflowers, after a third of French honeybees died following its widespread use. Five years later, it was also banned as a corn treatment.<br />
<br />
Bayer then produced clothianidin, a successor to imidacloprid. This was brought into the American market in 2003, and the German market in 2006. Clothianidin is also a neonicotinoid and highly toxic to honeybees.<br />
<br />
A recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report described the Bayer pesticides clothianidin and imidacloprid as a risk to numerous animals. It revealed that these chemicals potentially cause toxic chronic exposure to non-target pollinators, as well as animals such as cats, fish, rats, rabbits, birds and earthworms. "Laboratory studies have shown that such chemicals can cause loss of sense of direction, impair memory and brain metabolism, and cause mortality," the UNEP report said.<br />
<br />
Due to their high level of persistence, neonicotinoids can remain in the soil for several years. Thus, even untreated crops planted in fields where the pesticides were previously used can take up the toxins from the soil via their roots.<br />
<br />
In 2008 in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Southern Germany, two thirds of the honeybee population along the Rhine River died when dust from the clothianidin seed treatment on corn drifted onto neighbouring fields as the corn was been sown. This resulted in an average loss of 17,000 Euros for affected beekepers. Tests on the dead bees showed that 99 percent had a build-up of clothianidin. Butterflies and other useful insects disappeared at the same.<br />
<br />
Aggressive push to stop neonicotinoids<br />
Mimkes' group has been campaigning against neonicotinoids since 1997, when the hazards of neonicotinoids were more or less unknown to the broader public. He said that it is about time that Bayer is aggressively pushed to stop the manufacture and sale of these pesticides, and is made accountable for the economic loss and environmental damage brought by their products.<br />
<br />
"The most important development is that today there are thousands of reports, articles and studies around the world about the correlation of exposure to pesticides such as imidacloprid and clothianidin, and the widespread decline of bees. Beekeepers and environmental groups in many countries have become active, and have pressed governments and authorities to protect bees," he said.<br />
<br />
Environmental and beekeeping associations worldwide have gathered 1.2 million signatures to demand that clothianidin be removed from the market, which were presented to Bayer's Chief Executive Officer during a shareholder's meeting. The signature campaign was prompted by the public leak of an internal memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which confirms the risk that the pesticide poses to bees and describes Bayer safety studies to be inadequate.<br />
<br />
The EPA in 2003 provided "conditional registration" to clothianidin, pending Bayer's conduct of a chronic life cycle study on its effect on bees. Bayer asked for more time to finish its research, during which period it extensively sold the product. Bayer finally submitted its study in 2007, which the EPA declared as "scientifically sound" and used as a basis for the continued registration of clothianidin.<br />
But the leaked EPA memo revealed that EPA granted Bayer permission to conduct its study on canola, instead of corn-a crucial distinction, since canola is a minor crop compared to corn. Furthermore, the studies were conducted on test fields that were too small and close together. With bees foraging in a range of up to six miles, it thus seemed most likely that the test bees dined outside of the test fields, the memo further said.<br />
<br />
The upcoming PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs will include in its indictment governments and institutions that in several instances colluded with agrochemical TNCs in violations of the right to life, health, and livelihood, among other basic human rights.<br />
<br />
According to Mimkes, "Previous PPTs have helped to put pressure on companies, so we hope that it brings additional momentum for the campaign to stop the mass death of bees."<br />
The PPT has its historical roots in the tribunals on the Vietnam War and Latin American dictatorships. In the more recent era of corporate globalisation, PPTs have tackled and exposed TNCs which operate above national laws and can commit human rights violations with impunity.<br />
The PPT Session on Agrochemical TNCs is the first to target Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and BASF or the six companies currently in control of the world's food and agricultural system<br />
<br />
More info on the Tribunal: www.agricorporateaccountability.net/en/page/general/20<br />
<br />
Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides<br />
<br />
Coalition against BAYER Dangers<br />
www.CBGnetwork.org (in English)<br />
CBGnetwork@aol.com <br />
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Coordination-gegen-BAYER-Gefahren-CBG/127538777294665<br />
Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940<br />
please send an e-mail to receive the English newsletter "Keycode BAYER" free of charge<br />
<br />
Advisory Board <br />
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer <br />
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the German parliament<br />
Wolfram Esche, attorney<br />
Dr. Sigrid Müller, pharmacologist <br />
Prof. Rainer Roth, social scientist<br />
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the German parliament<br />
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist<br />
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian,<br />
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatricianThe Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-43576966968331933082011-11-17T06:41:00.000-08:002011-11-17T06:46:51.454-08:00How To Make Your Own Bee-Friendly ZoneHere's an idea that I have been kicking around for a while - actually, years - waiting for the right time to launch it into the world...<br />
<br />
Like most of the best ideas, it is simple and easy to implement. <br />
<br />
The idea is to create Bee-Friendly Zones in as many places as possible, from window boxes to gardens, from public parks to whole towns and cities.<br />
<b><br />
What is a Bee-Friendly Zone?</b> <br />
A BFZ is simply a safe place for bees and - by implication - to other insects and other wildlife. A BFZ is characterized by having <i>bee-friendly flowers</i> - especially wild flowers - and <i>no toxic chemicals</i>.<br />
<br />
That means you can make a BFZ really easily by (a) planting some wild flower seeds, and (b) avoiding the use of any insecticides or herbicides within the BFZ.<br />
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Literally anyone with access to even a small patch of land can make a BFZ - and if you only have room for a windowbox or a planter, that can also be a BFZ.<br />
<b><br />
OK, it sounds simple, so what's the big deal?</b><br />
Imagine if you make your garden a BFZ and put up a small sign that says, 'This is a Bee-Friendly Zone'. Your neighbours get curious and ask you about it and some of them also make BFZs. They tell their friends on Facebook and Twitter... You get the picture: soon we could have BFZs springing up all over the place - schools, public parks, whole neighbourhoods...<br />
<br />
And all these BFZs are free from toxic pesticides. Which means that fewer and fewer people buy them and all the big stores and garden centres don't even sell them anymore, because people kept asking them, '<a href="http://www.soilassociation.org/wildlife/bees/householdpesticides"><b>Why do you sell this stuff that kills bees?</b></a>'.<br />
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How quickly could we make this happen?<br />
<br />
Find out more <a href="http://www.beefriendlyzone.com">here</a>The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-33412941610575142822011-10-01T10:23:00.000-07:002011-10-01T10:23:10.634-07:00Disclosure of the Locations of GM CropsBees are unique as 'farmed' animals in that they have no constraints placed on their movements: they cannot be contained by fences, walls or hedges. For this reason, they must and will forage where they please.<br />
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Honeybees typically fly up to five kilometers from their hive in search of food. Their instinct for efficient use of fuel dictates that they will only fly as far as necessary to collect what they consider to be high quality food, and it is well known that they have a preference for certain types of flowers, and that they will make use of whatever is available to them, within their range, that offers significantly greater returns in terms of calories and nutritional content than they expend in its collection.<br />
<br />
Thus, honeybees will fly over apple blossom, dandelions and clover to get to a flowering field of oilseed rape that is within their flying range, because of the high concentration of nectar and pollen that such a crop offers. This does not mean that OSR is necessarily more nutritionally beneficial to bees than apple, dandelion or clover flowers, but simply that they find a field of such a crop irresistible because of the sheer quantity of food that it represents.<br />
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If we are to retain the decreasing number of commercial beekeepers willing and able to provide honey-production and pollination services, and if we are to continue growing field crops that depend on bees for pollination, then their needs must be respected and planned for. One such need is to be able to produce honey that is recognised as being pure and unadulterated, and thus free from any contaminants, including systemic insecticides that are present by design in many GM crops. Such insecticides may or may not be intrinsically lethal to bees, but may have as-yet-unproven sub-lethal side-effects, particularly on the bees' navigation systems. They may also have digestive or oxidation breakdown products that could be toxic to bees, and/or may prove to have harmful effects on the human consumers of their products, which also include pollen, beeswax and propolis. <br />
<br />
Commercial beekeeping in Britain has become increasingly marginal over the last 50 years, largely due to the unregulated importation of cheap honey from China, the Indian sub-continent and eastern Europe. One beekeeper of my aquaintance, who runs 1500 hives with only two men, told me recently that in the 1960s it took one ton of honey to pay a man's wages for the year, while now it takes six tons. While some commercial beekeepers provide mobile pollination services, and some others move their hives to moorland locations for the heather honey crop, escalating transport costs have rendered large-scale hive movements less and less profitable. <br />
<br />
There are an estimated 50,000 amateur beekeepers in Britain, whose bees perform countless millions of pollination operations every day during the growing season. While they do not count towards our GDP, they do represent a considerable, unpaid contribution towards the welfare of our parks and gardens, as well as the production of both wild and domestic fruit and vegetables. These amateur beekeepers have their hives mostly in fixed positions and would not be able to move them in order to avoid their bees foraging on nearby GM crops.<br />
<br />
I would suggest that, just as extensive sheep farmers will want to know what their animals are feeding on, and to have the opportunity to prevent them ingesting any potentially toxic material, that beekeepers must also have the right to know that their charges are foraging on flowers that will not cause them harm. Until peer-reviewed, long-term studies are produced that demonstrate conclusively that GM crops present no dangers to bees, and produce no toxic breakdown products as a result of being consumed by bees, that any GM-contaminated crops be identified and their location clearly signposted so that beekeepers are not subjected to the hazards they potentially represent.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-79574707913635304072011-04-25T11:16:00.000-07:002011-04-25T11:19:22.347-07:00What Is Wrong With Modern Beekeeping?<b>Text of a talk presented at the Spring Convention of the British Bee Keepers Association, April 15 2011</b><br />
<br />
Some speakers begin with a foreword; I shall begin with a forewarning: this talk may offend some people.<br />
<br />
It will offend creationists, who choose to ignore the evidence for evolution; it will offend fundamentalists, who believe that the only purpose of the so-called 'lower forms of life' is to serve mankind; it will offend those who believe that the Reverend Langstroth was revealing God's word when he designed his movable frame hive; and it will offend those who choose to ignore the paradigm shift that is occurring today among people who have woken up to the damage being done to our planet by the corporations that seek to own it.<br />
<br />
The title of this talk - What Is Wrong With Modern Beekeeping? - begs a question: is there something wrong with modern beekeeping?<br />
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My contention is that there is indeed much that is wrong with it, and that the root of the problem lies in the anthropocentric, pre-Darwinian belief that we are in charge: that humankind has a God-given right to dominion over all other forms of life, and that animals – including bees – were created purely to serve us.<br />
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'Modern' beekeeping can be said to have begun in the year 1852 – the year that Langstroth patented his hive. He did so, it should be noted, with the express purpose of making the commercial exploitation of bees a practical possibility. <br />
1852 was also the year that Langstroth published his book, The Hive and the Honeybee, in which we find the following passage:<br />
<br />
<i>“The Creator intended the bee for the comfort of man, as truly as he did the horse or the cow.</i><br />
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<i>The honey bee was... created not merely with the ability to store up its delicious nectar for its own use, but with certain properties which fitted it to be domesticated, and to labor for man, and without which, he would no more have been able to subject it to his control, than to make a useful beast of burden of a lion or a tiger.”</i><br />
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Which is to say that, according to this creed, not only were bees created in order to provide us with something sweet, but that they were allocated 'certain properties' that enable us to domesticate them. In those days, most people shared Langstroth's belief that 'The Creator intended the bee for the comfort of man' and that its purpose was to 'labor for man'. <br />
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And yet, unbeknown to the Reverend Langstroth, some twenty years earlier, a little ship had set sail from Plymouth harbour on a five-year voyage that was to change our understanding of the world forever. That ship was The Beagle, and just seven years after Langstroth completed his book, Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species.<br />
<br />
That was over 150 years ago. And yet, even today, despite Darwin's insights having been tested over and over by science; despite overwhelming evidence that all life is interdependent; despite irrefutable proof of the consequences of worldwide destruction of habitat and the poisoning of our life-giving soil by profit-driven corporations; despite all that, we see people still behaving as if they had God-given dominion over life on earth. <br />
<br />
And what of so-called 'modern beekeeping'? Has it fully embraced the post-Darwinian world? Or does it still operate from that old testament, fundamentalist paradigm? Are we – as appears to be the case - still teaching people how to 'manage' and 'control' bees, when we should be teaching them how to observe, listen to and work with the bees?<br />
<br />
We know that honeybees are finely adapted to their environment, from having evolved closely - over many millions of years – alongside the flowering plants on which they depend. <br />
<br />
We know that the plants themselves depend on bees and other insects for pollination, and we know that the well-being of our planet and all life upon it depends on a healthy soil, nurturing a flourishing, diverse range of plants, which feed insects, then birds and fish, then mammals, carnivores and ultimately ourselves.<br />
<br />
We know all that. And yet we have allowed our agricultural system to fall into the hands of those whose only concern is their own profit, and who care nothing for soil health or biodiversity. Their only concern is for increased sales of soil-destroying artificial fertilizers, herbicides that poison our water and insecticides that kill an entire sector of the food chain, including - and most importantly - our bees.<br />
<br />
Here's what an American writer and beekeeper, Kirk Webster, said in 2006:<br />
<br />
<i>“All of American agriculture is suffering terribly now from trying to force a process based on the workings of Nature into an industrial and business model. The ability to produce quality food has been abandoned in the quest to grow ever larger quantities of cheap, low quality commodities from our vast resources of soil and water. Because human health depends very largely on having continuous access to quality food, almost all Americans are suffering as a result of this process.“</i><br />
<br />
And it's not just Americans.<br />
<br />
We can no longer pretend that the old, pre-Darwinian paradigm has any validity: we do not have - and we never have had - dominion over life on earth. Only a fool would leave a species like ours in charge of a planet.<br />
<br />
We are only a part of life on earth, far less numerous than some, and yet we are by far the most destructive species ever to have lived here and we show little sign of reforming any time soon.<br />
<br />
What is worse is that we seem to be incapable - as a species - of learning from our mistakes. Few people would say that war is a civilized way of settling disputes, and yet there has never been a time in recorded history when some part of the human race has not been at war with some other part. And most of those wars were and are based on differences of religious belief, with absolutely no hard evidence to back up either side. <br />
<br />
In a similar way, we have bought into the corporate notion that we are somehow 'at war with nature', and that any living thing - be it plant or insect - that appears to stand in the way of the efficient production of shiny, cheap and tasteless supermarket food must be the enemy and therefore must be controlled and, if possible, eliminated.<br />
<br />
The passage I quoted earlier from Langstroth's The Hive and the Honeybee illuminates the exact point in history when the Old Testament doctrine that 'bees are subject to our will' was cemented into beekeeping lore.<br />
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And there it remains to this day as a pervasive, if largely unstated belief. It finds expression in the teaching programmes of bee keepers' associations, where there is an underlying presumption that the only acceptable reason for keeping bees is the production of the maximum quantity of honey. <br />
<br />
Roger Morse, in his 'Complete Guide To Beekeeping', flatly states that, <i>'The goal in beekeeping should be honey production...' and that 'Only a beekeeper who produces as much honey as possible thoroughly understands bees, beekeeping and bee biology.'</i><br />
<br />
This attitude of nature-dominating, production-driven beekeeping is the legacy of Langstroth and his disciples that continues to be preached to this day.<br />
<br />
It sees a bee colony as a mere commodity for making profit; the hive as a machine for making honey, rather than the home of the bees. It regards weekly disturbance of the colony, and the addition of toxic chemicals as normal.<br />
<br />
It regards the bees merely as units of production, that are expendable and that can be killed, replaced, traded, or transported at will.<br />
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It pays little heed to the needs of other local species or the local ecology, while being responsible for importing of varroa, viruses, nosema and a host of pathogens and parasites from around the world.<br />
<br />
Thus, the typical response by 'old hands' to new beekeepers, who express shock at the considerable investment in new equipment required of them: “You can always recoup your investment by selling honey!” <br />
<br />
And so the innocent beginner becomes locked into the 'bee-farming' mentality, and what was once in their mind to become an engaging hobby, turns instantly into a small business, with a profit-and-loss account and bees now regarded as stock with a monetary value, instead of wild creatures fleetingly in our care. <br />
<br />
That commercial exploitation of bees has played a large part in the problems we now face is clear, but that does not necessarily mean that all commercial beekeeping activity is destructive. <br />
<br />
I recently had a conversation with a beekeeper, who, with one other man, runs 1500 hives. His principles include minimal interference, minimal mite treatment and little movement of hives. He does not inspect every 8 days looking for queen cells, nor does he import artificially inseminated queens: he has, over many years, created the conditions for the bees to interbreed and create an ecotype that is adapted to his local conditions. I know of another commercial beekeeper in another part of the country who operates in a very similar way.<br />
<br />
This methodology has a lot in common with post-modern, 'natural beekeeping' philosophy, guided by a principle, which I hold to be self-evident, that bees know best what is good for them and that our job is to listen, to watch and to follow their lead. <br />
<br />
Contrast this with the teachings of the disciples of Langstroth, who insist that they know best when a queen should be replaced, which strain of bee she should be replaced with, and what size cells she should be allowed to lay into. And then they wonder why their honeybees appear to suffer from parasites, 'mystery disappearances' and diseases that were virtually unknown before the advent of the movable-frame hive, re-cycled wax foundation and chemical medications.<br />
<br />
Of course, beekeepers are not entirely to blame for the ills of bees: much of the responsibility for the mess we now find ourselves in must be laid squarely at the door of the agri-chemical industry, whi began by selling to farmers the weapons of chemical warfare left over from the First World War, and ever since have systematically poisoned our agricultural land, our water supplies and our wild places, deriving massive profits from peddling their toxic wares, while infiltrating and disabling all attempts to regulate their activities.<br />
<br />
If proof were needed of the fatal power of human greed over rational, long-term thinking, one would not need to look further than the corporate entities of Monsanto, Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and their like to find it.<br />
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Nevertheless, beekeepers must accept their share of the blame for perpetuating the notion that all ills can be cured using the right 'magic bullet' treatment, be it prophylactic antibiotics, pyrethroid miticides or pollen substitutes. No sooner does a disease appear, than beekeepers are reaching for the latest bottle of medicine, with little thought for the possible long-term consequences. <br />
<br />
Contrary to what we are often told, bee diseases made a serious impact as a direct result of the proliferation of intensive, commercial beekeeping, during the half century following the introduction of Langstroth's hive.<br />
<br />
Here's what the American beekeeper C P Dadant wrote in 1920:<br />
<br />
<i>"If anyone had asked us, twenty years ago, how much trouble might be expected from bee-diseases, we should probably have shrugged our shoulders and answered that they were very insignificant and hardly worthy of notice. For forty years after we began beekeeping the only disease we saw in the apiary was diarrhoea... from which the bees suffered more or less after a protracted winter, especially when their food was not of the best... Foul brood, in either of its two forms was entirely unknown to us. In 1903 the writer had to go as far away as Colorado to be able to see some rare samples of it... It was not until the spring of 1908 that we found it among our bees..."</i><br />
<br />
Just a few years later in 1928, this explanation of the sudden increase in bee diseases was offered by a British beekeeper, A Gilman, in his book 'Practical Bee Breeding'<br />
<br />
<i>"...disease is an expression of lowered vitality ...and simultaneously with increased fecundity there has been an extraordinary increase of disease. Their connection may be denied, but when we find a similar occurrence taking place with other livestock which we know to have been pushed for super-production, we consider the matter far more than a mere coincidence."</i><br />
<br />
He goes on:<br />
<br />
<i>"...the increase of diseases has occurred principally in those countries where modern methods of breeding have prevailed. In America, brood diseases became so devastating as to call for legislation... on the continent of Europe, apiarists have been troubled with Nosema disease... <br />
<br />
we had Isle of Wight disease, which so decimated apiaries all over the country that we had to resort to foreign bees for re-stocking purposes."</i><br />
<br />
Gilman went on to draw this conclusion about 'modern beekeeping':<br />
<br />
<i><b>"...the only conclusion to which one can come, is that the principles on which the whole structure of modern apiculture are based must be at fault, in either one or more important directions."</b></i><br />
<br />
Many years later, when the Varroa mite appeared in Europe as a direct result of the international bee trade, the treatment of choice was a synthetic pyrethroid, to which, in just a few years, the mites inevitably and entirely predictably developed immunity. Our interventions, combined with the effects of (BBKA-endorsed) pyrethroids concurrently being applied to farmland, actually created the conditions in which the mite could quickly evolve resistance to treatment.<br />
<br />
As a direct consequence of this short-term 'magic-bullet' thinking, we now have mites that are substantially more difficult to kill.<br />
<br />
So, how might we go about putting things right?<br />
<br />
<b>Firstly, we need to look at our underlying attitudes to bees. </b><br />
<br />
Rather than seeking to dominate and control them, we need to respect them: after all, they have been around for many millions of years longer than we have. <br />
We need to acknowledge that here are other legitimate reasons for keeping bees, apart from a desire to extract the maximum yield of honey from them. They are intrinsically valuable, simply for their part in nature. Many people want to keep a hive or two just to have them around, and have no desire to rob them of their honey.<br />
<br />
Bees have evolved alongside the flowering plants and have become intimately adapted to them, as the plants have to the bees. We cannot think of bees as separate from plants: they are part of each other and they depend on each other for their very existence. <br />
<br />
What we do to flowering plants, we do to bees. If we poison the plants, we poison the bees. If we coat the seeds of our food crops with toxins - such as Bayer's Clothianidin - and those toxins are taken up by plants to become part of their reproductive system, then we are certainly poisoning the bees and all other insects that come into contact with those plants. Not only that, but these systemic insecticides remain in the soil for many years, killing beneficial insects along with the so-called pests. They are taken up by other plants, including those decorative wild flower borders sown around crop fields by well-meaning farmers who think they are helping the bees. Wild flowers will take up the same toxic chemicals and will become lethal to bees in just the same way.<br />
<br />
Dr. Jeff Pettis, research leader at the USDA-ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, USA, spoke to Members of Parliament in April 2011 about the subject of threats to bees, saying:<br />
<i><br />
“The reason I am conducting research on the neonicotinoid group is that they have a new route of exposure to bees, through pollen and nectar, and I continue to be concerned about their potential negative impacts on pollinators.”</i><br />
<br />
He also said that it wasn't just one factor that was responsible for the decline in bee health:<br />
<br />
“I think there's more of what I call the 3-P principle – poor nutrition, pesticides and pathogens. Those three things are interacting greatly. Nutrition is the foundation of good bee health, and certainly there's some pesticide exposure going on, but it varies widely over time and space. And the pathogens in my opinion are often acting secondarily. But it's the interaction of these three. You get three of them lined up then surely you'll have bees in poor health. Even the combination of any two could be problematic.”<br />
<br />
So, poor nutrition, pesticides and pathogens: the first two of those three are tied to modern, chemical agriculture: poor nutrition being a consequence of monocultured crops and the consequent reduction in biodiversity. <br />
<br />
The damaging effects of pathogens are likely to be exacerbated by poor nutrition and pesticides combining forces to weaken the bees' immune systems. <br />
<br />
Pathogens are also transported around the world by the international bee trade. Banning all imports of bees into the UK would go some way towards stopping this locally, but we have to recognize that viruses are already everywhere, waiting for their opportunity to grow and spread. While we support toxic agriculture, we are making it easier for them to do so.<br />
<br />
We urgently need to radically reform our agricultural system, so that it is not dependent on artificial fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides.<br />
<br />
The BBKA should be supporting the organic movement, which is working to develop efficient systems of food production without the use of toxic chemicals. Instead, they have chosen to side with the pesticide industry.<br />
<br />
A charity that claims to have the interests of bees and beekeeping at heart should never put itself in a position where it is under the influence of businesses whose purpose is to sell insecticides that kill bees. It is the equivalent of a cancer research charity being controlled by a tobacco company, or a brewery sponsoring Alcoholics Anonymous.<br />
<br />
<b>Secondly, amateurs should not be forced to mimic professionals. </b><br />
<br />
When a newcomer turns up at her first bee keepers' association meeting, with the innocent notion that she wishes to keep a couple of hives at the bottom of her garden, she should not be forced to invest hundreds of pounds in hives and equipment that was designed for commercial beekeeping, and that may be too heavy for her to lift when full of bees and honey. Neither should the justification for such expense on ludicrously unsuitable kit be justified by telling her that she needs to become business-minded and sell her honey in order to pay for it.<br />
<br />
And in case you think I am being disingenuous in using the feminine gender to make my case, I can tell you that every single course I ran during 2010 had a majority of female participants, and one was comprised entirely of women. When I started beekeeping at the turn of the century, female beekeepers were a rarity, and women's roles at beekeeping meetings were largely restricted to serving tea and cakes.<br />
Beekeeping has been a male preserve for too long, in my opinion, and it is time that women were welcomed back. They were the first victims of the Langstroth hegemony: there were plenty of women in beekeeping in the days of skeps, and the top bar hive is now making it possible for them to return. I have had numerous emails from women thanking me for introducing them to a system of beekeeping that does not require them to lift 50-pound boxes.<br />
<br />
We need to consider other types of hive for use by back-garden beekeepers: Nationals and Langstroths do not suit everyone.<br />
<br />
<b>Thirdly, we need to look at modern beehives and beekeeping practices from the point of view of our bees.</b><br />
<br />
The Langstroth hive and all of its imitations, including the British National hive, make it relatively easy for beekeepers to interfere with bees and shuffle their combs like a deck of cards, but they do little or nothing to support the natural lives of the bees. <br />
<br />
Hive walls are absurdly thin, and do little to help bees regulate their temperature while being easily penetrated by woodpeckers. Honey supers and brood boxes, when full are heavier than most people can safely lift, resulting in back pain and hernias – commonplace among commercial beekeepers. Frames are fragile, prone to being glued together by propolis, and create useful hiding places for the wax moth, while bearing almost no resemblance to the shape that bees choose to build their natural combs. Drones are suppressed by the use of uniform, over-sized foundation, which is recycled along with the toxins it accumulates from pesticides applied both inside and outside the hive. Queens are routinely imported, artificially inseminated, marked, clipped and replaced. <br />
<br />
Brood combs are re-used too many times, contributing to the recurrence of disease; swarm cells are hacked out unthinkingly; medications and pest treatments are tossed in more-or-less at a whim.<br />
<br />
All these practices are routine even among experienced beekeepers and are often taught as gospel to beginners. They all derive from the same attitude: we know better than the bees.<br />
<br />
All these practices need to be examined and questioned: there should be no sacred cows in beekeeping.<br />
<br />
There is a strong and growing movement in this country towards more 'natural' beekeeping, which the BBKA has so far failed to acknowledge, presumably in the hope that it will just go away. <br />
<br />
'Natural beekeepers' use no synthetic chemicals in their hives and follow less invasive practices. They put the welfare of their bees above honey production targets, and only take honey when the bees can easily spare it. They use hives that help the bees conserve heat, and open them infrequently. They observe, they listen, and they act sparingly and with care.<br />
<br />
Natural beekeepers may not yet have all the answers to the welfare of bees, but at least they are asking the right questions.<br />
<br />
As I see it, our main job as bee keepers, or bee guardians, or bee herders, or whatever we choose to call ourselves, is to to be observant and to understand our bees to the best of our ability. We cannot fully enter into their world, but we have the opportunity to gain a greater appreciation of it.<br />
<br />
And once we begin to understand how intimately embedded they are in the natural world, and what sensitive indicators they are of disturbances therein, we may begin to develop a deep appreciation of the interconnectedness of all living things. And that leads us inevitably to the conclusion that we have a responsibility towards – not only the bees – but towards everything that walks on the earth and flies in the air and shares this precious planet with us. <br />
<br />
<br />
So yes – I think there is a great deal wrong with modern beekeeping. Much of it can be put right before it is too late, but it will require long-term, strategic thinking and inspired leadership. Sadly, I see little evidence of either among our politicians or the current beekeeping priesthood.<br />
<br />
But I do have faith in the next generation of beekeepers: those who have come to the craft motivated by a passion for nature and an instinctive recognition of what is good for the long-term. They know what needs to be done, and I believe they will do it. <br />
<br />
They may take their inspiration from Bolivia, which is set to pass a law granting all of nature equal rights to humans. According to a newspaper report, “The Law of Mother Earth redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.<br />
<br />
[Bolivia] will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered.”<br />
<br />
Vice-President Alvaro García Linera is quoted as saying, <i>"It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all. It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration."</i><br />
<br />
That is the kind of thinking we need more of, right now, in politics and in beekeeping.<br />
<br />
Philip Chandler<br />
April 2011The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-88003116182927097522011-02-17T04:12:00.000-08:002011-02-28T01:52:32.180-08:0010 Lessons We Can Learn From HoneybeesWe can learn many things by observing the behaviour of honeybees. Here are ten examples of lessons we could usefully apply to our own lives.<br />
<br />
1) Honeybees live within their means. There are no banks, loans or credit cards in the bees' world; only the resources they themselves gather and store. Like us, bees need to eat every day, and they do everything in their power to ensure a constant food supply by storing it – not so much for themselves, but for bees yet to be born.<br />
<br />
2) Honeybees achieve extraordinary things by working together. Fifty thousand workers can shift a lot of stuff. Co-operation is the key to their success: tens of thousands of individuals behaving as a single organism.<br />
<br />
3) Honeybees demonstrate that division of labour can be highly efficient. And everyone knowing how to do the full range of essential jobs makes for flexibility and adaptability. Bees move through a series of jobs in the hive before finally emerging as food-gatherers. In an emergency, they can revert to their former occupations to make up for losses.<br />
<br />
4) Honeybees make honey while the sun shines. Bees are opportunists, taking advantage of available food as soon as conditions are right. Even when their stores seem full, they will find odd corners to pack with food,<br />
<br />
5) Honeybees behave as though individuals matter, while the common good is always their first priority. Ego is not a feature of honeybees: their first duty is to the colony and bees will sacrifice themselves without hesitation if they perceive a threat to the colony.<br />
<br />
6) Honeybees understand that hard times happen, and they are always prepared for shortages as well as disasters.<br />
<br />
7) Honeybees share: they know there is plenty for everyone, including other species. Honeybees do not compete head-on with other species: there is overlap in their food sources, but they do not need to drive others from their territory.<br />
<br />
8) Honeybees adapt to their surroundings. They know that this is the only effective survival strategy. This extends even to their use of propolis, which varies according to local conditions, and can protect them against localized pathogens.<br />
<br />
9) Honeybees understand that honest communication is at the heart of community. Bees are great communicators, using vibrations and pheromones to pass complex messages around their colony. As far as we know, they are incapable of telling anything but the truth as they understand it.<br />
<br />
10) Honeybees' survival depends on selecting high quality, un-tainted food from a variety of sources. Because we have assumed control of much of the available land for our own purposes, we are responsible for ensuring that they continue to have access to flowers untainted by toxic chemicals to which they have no defence.<br />
<br />
For almost all of the last 80 million years or so, bees have had flowering plants to themselves. Only in the last 100 years has their natural diet been contaminated with substances they can never before have encountered: man-made chemicals designed to poison them and their kind, some of them cunningly incorporated into the very bodies of the plants they feed on. More and more of these toxins are being spread on crops and on the soil, and the bees have no chance of surviving their onslaught.<br />
<br />
We must reform our farming methods. The alternative is a world controlled by corporations, intent on bringing the food chain completely under their control. <br />
<br />
The elimination of 'nuisance species' is already underway by those who stand to profit from GM crops. To those who stand to make billions of dollars from maize, wheat, rice and cotton, the honeybees are irrelevant. They simply don't care if they disappear: they have no use for them, as all the crops that grow from the GM seeds they sell are wind-pollinated.<br />
<br />
Ironically, some of these very same corporations are already making profits from breeding and selling other bee species - such as mason bees and bumblebees - to those whose crops do require pollination. Because these bees need to be bred in quantity and renewed every year, they have found a way to commercially benefit from the developing situation that must raise questions about their involvement in the demise of the honeybee.<br />
<br />
<i>Have they, in fact, deliberately poisoned the honeybee in order to exploit the resulting gap in the market?</i>The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-9036270530539269502011-01-10T02:56:00.000-08:002011-01-10T02:57:49.760-08:0010 Questions for the Executive of the British Bee Keepers Association<b>These are the key questions that need answering if the BBKA wishes to be seen as fairly representing the interests of British bees and bee keepers:</b><br />
<br />
(1) When the BBKA Executive made the decision to endorse the initial four insecticides, what due diligence procedures did it employ that led to the conclusion that these insecticides were 'bee-friendly'? Did the manufacturers provide peer-reviewed, independent research to back up their claims?<br />
<br />
(2) Was the Executive aware, for example, of the research (i) published in 1995 - 6+ years before the decision - that demonstrated deltamethrin (one of the endorsed pesticides) to be deadly to bees, even in extremely small doses? And the research (ii) published 1993 that clearly states 'Cypermethrin is highly toxic to bees'?<br />
<br />
(3) If the Executive was aware of this research, what led it to ignore or override its findings?<br />
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(4) If the Executive was not aware of this research, does it still consider that it undertook due diligence before endorsing these pesticides?<br />
<br />
(5) Did the Executive, during the subsequent years of endorsement, keep a review on published research about the endorsed pesticides?<br />
<br />
(6) And is the Executive familiar with the research (iii) published in 2005 that shows both cypermethrin and deltamethrin to be 'highly toxic to honeybees'? If not, please review your answer to Q5.<br />
<br />
(7) It is clear from Dr Bernie Doeser's review of the science (sent to BBKA November 2 2010) that the very pesticides the BBKA endorsed are very far from being 'bee-friendly'; in fact three of them are among the five most toxic pesticides in their class.(iv)<br />
<br />
In the light of this review, do you still think you made the right decisions? And will you be taking up Dr Doeser's generous offer of expert help and advice in such matters?<br />
<br />
(8) In the light of the above, the BBKA executives who were responsible for the endorsement policy appear to have been either:<br />
<br />
(a) negligent in their assessment of published research, or<br />
<br />
(b) reckless in their endorsement of products known to be toxic to bees.<br />
<br />
Which do you consider to have been the case? <br />
<br />
<br />
(9) Why did the BBKA Executive fail to support their colleagues in Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Belgium in a call for the systemic, neurotoxic, neonicotinoid insecticides Imidacloprid, Thiamethoxam and Clothianidin to be removed from the European list of permitted agricultural chemicals? (v)<br />
<br />
(10) What measures do you propose to put in place to ensure that:<br />
<br />
(a) BBKA takes a firm stance against the introduction into our environment of unnecessary toxic chemicals, especially the widely-condemned neonicotinoids? (vi)(vii)<br />
<br />
(b) BBKA members are not again embarrassed by having to apologize to the rest of the world for being represented by a body that endorses bee-killing chemicals?<br />
<br />
(c) Members of the BBKA Executive, whether elected or co-opted, make a full, public declaration of any financial, academic or research interests that they hold in partnership with pesticide companies, the agricultural, pharmaceutical and food industries, - or any other industry that could be deemed a conflict of interest.<br />
<br />
(d) BBKA supports the organic/pesticide-free farming movement, including the Soil Association, the Wholesome Food Association, Garden Organic and the Biodynamic Agricultural Association, in their encouragement to farmers to use non-chemical growing methods?The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-27125513780399824542010-11-30T04:12:00.000-08:002011-01-01T07:06:02.352-08:00Do Creationists Run Bee Keeping Associations?There is considerable arrogance in the notion that we must know better than the bees do what is best for them, yet the publication of Charles Darwin's pivotal book, <i>On The Origin of Species</i> just seven years after Langstroth's <i>Hive and the Honey Bee</i> in November 1859 , seems to have made but little impact on this general attitude, even 150 years later. It is as if creationists still hold sway over bee keeping associations.<br />
<br />
At the heart of modern, 'natural beekeeping' philosophy is the principle, which I hold to be self-evident, that bees know best what is good for them and that our job is to listen, to watch and to follow their lead. Contrast this with the teachings of the disciples of Langstroth, who insist that they know best when a queen should be replaced, which strain of bee she should be replaced with, and what size cells she should be allowed to lay into. And then they wonder why the honeybee appears to suffer from parasites, 'mystery disappearances' and diseases that were almost unknown before the advent of the movable-frame hive and re-cycled wax foundation.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-3088656343191148282010-11-24T04:59:00.000-08:002010-11-24T04:59:26.507-08:00Have we been lied to for 10 years?<b>Have we been lied to for 10 years? Or has the pesticide industry been lying to the British Bee Keepers Association?</b> <br />
<br />
http://tinyurl.com/35sen6k<br />
<br />
This episode will be of particular interest to British beekeepers - especially those who are - or have been - or may one day be members of the British Bee Keepers Association - the BBKA.<br />
<br />
Wherever you are, I think you will find something of interest, as I am interviewing a man who has looked very carefully at the whole issue of pesticides and their potential impact on bees, with particular reference to the BBKA's decade-long policy of taking money from the pesticide industry in return for the use of the BBKA logo on certain products, and the endorsement of such products as being somehow 'bee-friendly'.<br />
<br />
Many people - when told that a bee keepers association endorses insecticides at all - are shocked and surprised, as was Dr Bernie Doeser, who has recently produced an independent report that is highly critical of the way the BBKA have managed - or failed to manage - their policy. <br />
<br />
Bernie Doeser's report reveals barely believable levels of negligence and incompetence in this whole episode, starting with the fact that the BBKA actually endorsed some of the pesticides that - far from being bee-friendly - are actually among the top five most lethal pesticides in their class.<br />
<br />
I had to record the interview with Bernie Doeser in the rather echo-y cafe of the Tate gallery in the seaside town of St Ives in Cornwall, and although we managed to arrange coats and hats to absorb much of the background noise, you can still tell that it is a cafe.<br />
<br />
(And for those of you outside the UK, Cornwall is in the bottom left hand corner of England, and England is part of that little island off the coast of Europe called Great Britain, the United Kingdom or just the UK.)<br />
<br />
Please spread this link - http://tinyurl.com/35sen6kThe Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-73804934956121585712010-11-17T05:58:00.000-08:002010-11-17T05:58:29.787-08:00Is the BBKA planning an even cosier relationship with Bayer?The headlines have been about BBKA ending their pesticide endorsements, but look more closely: they are planning a deeper relationship with the same corporations.<br />
<br />
<br />
Update re. BBKA endorsement of insecticides<br />
<br />
(1) Summary: For the last ten years or so, the British Bee Keepers Association has received sums of money in return for their endorsement of several pyrethroid-based insecticides as 'bee-friendly if used according to the instructions'. This was kept quiet by the BBKA executive for several years, and was widely criticized when it came to light.<br />
<br />
This issue was put up for debate by Twickenham BKA at the 2009 and 2010 Annual Delegates Meetings, but the status quo held, largely due to the BBKA's undemocratic voting system (based on regional representatives rather than one person, one vote).<br />
<br />
(2) My interest in this is a strong personal belief that a charity constituted to protect the interests of bees should not accept money from corporations whose commercial interests include the sale of extremely toxic insecticides, proven to be lethal to bees, on the grounds that such transactions will inevitably influence BBKA policies and actions.<br />
<br />
As evidence for this, at no time since this endorsement began has the BBKA ever spoken out against the use of agricultural insecticides, or warned against the potential dangers of systemic pesticides in GM crops, or allowed any statement critical of the pesticides industry to appear on their web site or in any of their publications. In fact, the one time they invited members to comment on this policy on their web site, they received a series of messages criticizing their policy and responded by censoring the comments and soon afterwards, removing the page. The full story, including the censored comments, can be seen here - http://www.britishbeekeeping.com<br />
<br />
Also, I have seen no endorsement of the organic movement in general, nor the Soil Association in particular, for their policy of creating insect-friendly habitat and minimizing the use of chemicals on agricultural land. In fact, I have heard members of the BBKA executive, past and present, including long-term technical advisor Dr Norman Carreck, speak out against orgainc farming (quote: "Crop rotation is old-fashioned - biotechnology is the way forward.").<br />
<br />
(3) Dr Bernie Doeser's recent report on the BBKA pesticide endorsement affair reveals serious shortcomings in the way it was handled, as well as underlining the true toxicity of the pesticides endorsed as 'bee friendly' - http://tinyurl.com/37z4z65<br />
<br />
This report clearly caused consternation at BBKA HQ, as they immediately went to work to devise a way to prevent the pesticides issue from being aired at the January 2011 Annual Delegates Meeting for the third successive year, as proposed by the Twickenham branch and backed by a number of other BKAs.<br />
<br />
(4) BBKA appears to have conducted a 'strategic review', either previously or in response to this report, in which they propose even closer ties with agri-biotech corporations [see http://tinyurl.com/35hzwd5] while taking the emphasis off direct endorsement of insecticides.<br />
<br />
The following email was recently sent to all BBKA local associations:<br />
<br />
From: BBKA HQ<br />
Date: 15 November 2010 16:14<br />
Subject: BBKA Strategic Review<br />
<br />
Dear Association Secretary<br />
<br />
Attached to this email is a statement about a strategic review that the BBKA Trustees have undertaken.<br />
<br />
As part of this review you will see that our policy with regard to our endorsement of specific products has changed. This decision was taken by the Trustees a while ago as part of this wider strategic review, and would have been announced in due course as part of the results of that review. It was however decided in view of the fact that a debate on the narrow issue of endorsement was likely at the forthcoming Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM) it was better to make the decision public at this time.<br />
<br />
The statement refers to a wider engagement with the plant protection industry and as a example of the way this can work. There will be a leaflet inserted in the December edition of the BBKA News produced by the Crop Protection Association (CPA). The BBKA was consulted on the production of the leaflet and tried to ensure that best practice in relation to honey (and indeed) other bees was incorporated.<br />
<br />
Finally the trustees are putting forward a motion to the Annual Delegates Meeting (ADM) asking for delegates support for this new policy. Details of this motion will be sent to association delegates and secretaries and I would ask that you debate the new policy locally and make your views known to your delegate in good time for the January ADM.<br />
<br />
Martin Smith<br />
President<br />
<br />
BBKA Strategic Review http://tinyurl.com/35hzwd5<br />
<br />
<br />
(5) My comments:<br />
<br />
My first reaction is revulsion at the BBKA adopting the NewSpeak phrase 'crop protection industry' as a harmless-sounding label for the 'agricultural poison and pollution industry' it really is.<br />
<br />
Far from distancing themselves from these corporations, they appear to be ever more willing to embrace them (and their vocabulary) and thus further compromise their ability to speak freely about the dangers to bees from agricultural pesticides.<br />
<br />
For me, the ethical considerations trump everything. For an organisation purporting to be working in the interests of bees to publicly walk hand in hand with the manufacturers of the very substances that are killing bees, other insects, birds and ultimately entire food chains, as well as endangering public health, while failing in any way to support the organic movement, is utterly anathema.<br />
<br />
(6) Suggested action:<br />
<br />
(a) Request the BBKA sever all financial ties with corporations that have any interest in the manufacture or sale of insecticides or other agricultural chemicals known to be toxic to bees<br />
<br />
(b) Request that the BBKA give explicit support for the Soil Association and the organic movement in general for their efforts in creating more habitat for bees and other pollinators.<br />
<br />
(c) Request complete electoral reform in the BBKA, requiring all such matters to be openly debated, publicly reported on and voted on by all members.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-84178187050435335332010-10-18T08:05:00.000-07:002010-10-18T08:05:03.178-07:00Why GM is dangerousNature will always find a balance, but the balance position may not always suit us.<br />
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Natural balance is not static: it is dynamic. In a given ecosystem, one species may gain the upper hand for a while, but then its predators will thrive as well because of the abundance of food. If they are too efficient, the predator may reduce the prey species so far that they themselves suffer a dearth and a severe reduction in numbers, which creates a window for the return of the prey species. Unless some other factor intervenes - such as the inadvertent introduction of a new predator, or a novel chemical, into the ecosystem - this dynamic balance will persist indefinitely.<br />
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What humans do is mess with the ecosystem on many levels simultaneously, resulting in a complex set of interactions that cannot fully be anticipated or understood.<br />
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That is the single reason why I think GM is the most dangerous technology of all: not that it is necessarily toxic - although it may well be - not that it is in the hands of powerful, profit hungry psychopaths - although it is, and we should be very concerned about that - but that NOBODY understands or can possibly predict the potential ramifications of interfering with natural process at that level or on that scale.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-37386430948037331072010-09-07T14:42:00.000-07:002010-09-07T14:42:13.020-07:00Buy me a coffee - help me do more for you!You have probably noticed that there is a lot of free stuff on my site at www.biobees.com - articles, videos, PDFs, a free forum, a podcast - and I am constantly looking for ways to produce more material for you.<br />
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I do this because I believe that this work is the best use of my time and energy, and that by giving freely, enough will come back to provide for my needs. Thanks to those of you who have bought my book, and those who have attended one of my weekend events, I have so far been able to 'make ends meet'.<br />
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Now I would very much like to make more videos, do more writing, and turn more of my workshop projects into plans and instructions for you to experiment with. This means making a total commitment and giving up other sources of income in order to spend as much time as possible working to provide you with new and exciting material.<br />
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My laptop has served me well for nearly six years and now needs replacing. My bee-wagon is over 13 years old and may not make it through another test. I am regularly asked to do talks which take up time with little or no payment - sometimes not even covering expenses.<br />
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I am not seeking sympathy - I know I am better off than most of the world's population because I have a roof over my head and food to eat - but I do want to provide the best possible service and I do need the tools for the job.<br />
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I don't want to charge a membership fee as I want to make this site accessible to all, regardless of income.<br />
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So - only if you can afford it and you value what I am doing - would you mind making a small donation to help me give you more?<br />
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You can donate a single amount - say, <a href="http://www.biobees.com/thankyou.html">the price of a coffee</a> - or if you feel that giving up a coffee once a month would not hurt anyway, you can <a href="http://www.biobees.com/thankyou.html">make a regular donation</a> if you wish!<br />
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If you can't make a donation, your verbal expressions of support are also helpful - so please keep them coming!<br />
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Thanks for all your support so far - I really appreciate it.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-42659905067428202972010-08-10T02:01:00.000-07:002010-08-10T03:44:45.843-07:00Learning by Playing Around - Avoiding DogmaI get quite a few emails from people asking me to explain in more detail how to perform some aspect of top bar beekeeping.<br /><br />Some of these ask for details of measurements that I have forgotten to add to a diagram, or the best type of wood to use, or the right size of mesh for floors - and I'm happy to provide information like this when I have it, and when I'm fairly sure of my ground. <br /><br />Often, the questions are about matters for which there is no hard-and-fast answer, such as 'when should I split a colony?', or 'should I remove bees from my attic?', or 'how many bars should I use on my hive?', and I feel the need of these people for solid answers, even though usually there are none.<br /><br />I think our education system has conditioned us to expect there to be simple answers to all questions - things we can memorize and write down on demand in an examination paper, and have it marked by the teacher as right or wrong. <br /><br />But life isn't like that - and bees are certainly not like that.<br /><br />In your first year of beekeeping, you can read a lot of books - and even take some exams - and feel like you know a lot about bees and beekeeping. We all know people like that - I was probably one of them! Recently, I heard about a beekeeper who passed all her BBKA modules and was actually taken on as a Seasonal Bee Inspector before she had completed her first full year of beekeeping! Then she made herself thoroughly unpopular among her local beekeepers by laying down the law to people who had been keeping bees for 30 years and more.<br /><br />It is natural for beginners to ask questions - I encourage it and this is why we have a thriving <a href="http://www.naturalbeekeeping.org">Natural Beekeeping Forum</a> with over 3,500 members around the world. Often, when I give a talk, I spend as much time answering questions as I do speaking, and that is how I like it - it's always more interesting to be responding to genuine interest in people than to be just talking at them. And when I don't know the answer, I say so.<br /><br />As we accumulate experience, I think one of the most common things I hear is not so much that all our questions are answered, but that we find ourselves asking more and more of them - not necessarily of others, but of ourselves. Questions like, 'why do I do it this way?' and 'is there a better way to do this?' and, best of all, 'what would happen if I did this?'.<br /><br />For me, it is vital that I go on questioning everything I do with bees, to make sure I don't get stuck in doing things only one way 'just because that's the way it's done'. Whenever I see someone doing something mechanically, I am likely to ask them why they do it, and if they can't come up with a better answer than 'because that is the way I have always done it', then I'm liable to ask a lot more questions! And that's what I like to do to myself. <br /><br />And this is why I like the way we can discuss new ideas on the forum, and why we generally don't go in for 'laying down the law' of 'natural beekeeping'. We are a broad church, and we welcome people with no experience (even those who ask 'what does a honeybee look like?') as well as those who have been looking after bees for decades. By and large, we like to encourage the attitude of 'have you tried this' rather than 'you need to do it this way'.<br /><br />Every month or so I receive an (un-asked for) email from a woman who claims some sort of hot-line to the mind of Rudolf Steiner, and on this basis makes largely unintelligible pronouncements about the way we should be keeping bees. She has convinced herself that 'there is only one way'.<br /><br />As a lifelong dissenter from all things religious, I have an abiding dislike of dogma. I can see the damage that has been done in the world by the blind following of rules, and the last thing I want is to be making more rules. So I encourage everyone participating in the great experiment of 'natural beekeeping' to ask more questions, use your senses to seek answers from the bees themselves, and don't get bogged down in the pronouncements of people with axes to grind or 'gurus' to follow. What seemed to be true 100 years ago may be quite wrong, or no longer relevant to current conditions, or it may have some truth still in it, but in any case it is only one person's view.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-47451299617342948792010-07-29T05:59:00.000-07:002010-07-29T06:00:19.146-07:00Water spray as a substitute for smoke<a href="http://goo.gl/photos/JXfJ" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em"><img border="0" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ddNz0du0nmg/TE33tFOILLI/AAAAAAAAA3s/ErNH8m4q7z8/s512/IMG_0143.jpg"></a><br /><br />Video by Sheyne Bauermeister at the Yarner Trust, Welcombe, Devon. Phil Chandler demonstrating the use of a water spray as a substitute for smoke.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-27939824014312184962010-05-24T13:33:00.000-07:002010-05-24T13:40:22.143-07:00Swarming and Swarm ManagementWe are well into swarming season in the UK, much of Europe and the USA, so we are getting lots of swarm-related questions on the forum. This has prompted me to write an ebook dealing solely with the subject of <a href="http://offthebookshelf.com/authors/80-philip-chandler">swarming and swarm management</a> from the point of view of 'barefoot beekeeping'.<br /><br />You can find it at <a href="http://offthebookshelf.com/authors/80-philip-chandler">www.offthebookshelf.com</a> along with a new-format edition of The Barefoot Beekeeper.<br /><br />We want to hear your swarm stories on the forum - with pictures!The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-83203780040754691252010-03-20T11:57:00.000-07:002010-03-20T11:58:35.735-07:00BBKA backed the wrong horse - but will they admit it?New research from China has shown that synthetic pyrethroids - the same chemicals that we have been told to use in our hives against Varroa for the last 30 years, and the same chemicals that the British Bee Keepers Association cheerfully endorse as 'bee friendly' - are in fact toxic to bees and it has now been shown that 'the hatch rate of pyrethroid-exposed eggs was significantly depressed'. <br /><br />This immediately raises the questions: why was this research not done BEFORE we were told to use them in our hives. And if it was done, how were the manufacturers allowed to fudge and/or conceal the results for so long?<br /><br />Is it because - in the words of Dr L R B Mann, who was for 12 years advisor on toxins to the New Zealand Ministry of Health, "the chemical industry is, as an historical tendency, a refuge for crooks"?<br /><br /><br />Link to article: Widely Used Pesticides Found to Impair Bee Reproduction http://tinyurl.com/yzm2let<br /><br />Link to article: High Levels of Miticides and Agrochemicals in North American Apiaries: Implications for Honey Bee Health http://tinyurl.com/yg2gssgThe Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-61421206363313606322010-03-19T04:41:00.000-07:002010-03-19T04:43:18.611-07:00Widely Used Pesticides Found to Impair Bee ReproductionPosted: March 8, 2010<br /><br />By Janet Raloff, for Science News' Science & the Public Blog<br /><br />Pesticides are agents designed to rid targeted portions of the human environment of undesirable critters – such as boll weevils, roaches or carpenter ants. They’re not supposed to harm beneficials. Like bees. Yet a new study from China finds that two widely used pyrethroid pesticides – chemicals that are rather “green” as bug killers go – can significantly impair the pollinators’ reproduction.<br />Click here to find out more!<br /><br />Both chemicals are widely used in North America and elsewhere, including China. And, the researchers point out, the concentration of each pesticide that produced adverse effects in the experiments was at or below those that bees could encounter while pollinating treated crop fields.<br /><br />In recent years, there’s been a big move by U.S. farmers to turn away from broad-spectrum potent bug killers to the more targeted and environmentally friendly pyrethroids. These synthetic chemicals have been fashioned after the natural pyrethrin bug deterrent in chrysanthemums.<br /><br />The authors of the new study don’t argue that pyrethroids are a cause of colony collapse disorder, the mysterious die-offs affecting honeybees throughout North America. But they do argue that their findings suggest further investigation is warranted to confirm whether these immensely popular crop-protection chemicals might prove a previously unrecognized threat to pollinators. The source of a double-whammy, if you will, for already hammered bees.<br /><br />Ping-Li Dai of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and the Ministry of Agriculture led a team of researchers at those Beijing institutions together with a physiologist from the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai. The team investigated sublethal effects of bifenthrin and deltamethrin. Bifenthrin is used to kill everything from termites around homes to fire ants, corn pests and the mites that attack fruit trees. Deltamethrin is targeted at aphids, mealy bugs, whitefly, fruit moths, caterpillars on field crops, roaches, horseflies, mosquitoes and fleas.<br /><br />After first establishing the dose that would kill no more than five percent of exposed bees, the researchers laced sugar water near bee hives with either of the pyrethroids at that tolerable dose. Worker bees had access for 20 days to the pseudo-nectar in each of three successive years. Queens in each colony were dosed every five days over each treatment period. Studied bees had no access to outside nectar during the trial periods.<br /><br />Compared to queens receiving clean sugar water, those in the pyrethroid groups were substantially less fecund. For instance, clean queens in 2006 laid a little more than 1,200 eggs each day, compared to not quite 900 a day in the bifenthrin group and roughly 600 per day in the deltamethrin group. In general, the weight of eggs laid was higher in the pyrethroid-treated hives, but the hatch rate of pyrethroid-exposed eggs was significantly depressed. It varied by year, but in 2008, for instance, 88 percent of eggs in the control hives hatched versus 71.4 percent of those in the bifenthrin-treated hives and 80.5 percent of the deltamethrin-treated bees.<br /><br />The success rate of hatchlings, that is the share that reached adulthood, varied from 75 to 95 percent in the control hive – making it between 20 and 40 percentage points higher than in hives where bees had been exposed to a pyrethroid. Dai and colleagues report their findings in the March Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry.<br /><br />The bottom line, Dai’s team concludes: “The impact of pesticides on the colony may be severe.”<br /><br />And the researchers concede that they can only guess at how severe because their paper focused on easily quantifiable, gross effects. Both pyrethroids are neurotoxic, typically causing paralysis and worse in target pests. The Chinese scientists didn’t investigate whether in-egg or juvenile exposures to the pesticides might have resulted in behavioral impacts during adulthood. Perhaps diminishing the bees’ ability to learn tasks or remember where good nectar sources were.<br /><br />As I pointed out in a story four years back, pyrethroids may be relatively green – but they’re not totally benign to non-target organisms. That story was about little aquatic midges and other sediment dwellers. Essentially the food for fish and other critters people really care about.<br /><br />Now we see threats to bees. And that should give all of us pause – because these unsung heroes of the farm make much of today’s bountiful harvests possible.<br /><br />---------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />Now let me see, those pesticides that the BBKA endorse as being 'bee-friendly', aren't they pyrethroids?<br /><br />And those strips they have been telling beekeepers to put in their hive to kill varroa, aren't they also pyrethroids?<br /><br />So I wonder why this research was left to the Chinese to do?<br /><br />WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THE RESEARCH BEFORE TELLING US THIS STUFF IS HARMLESS?The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-79825277993568488842010-03-08T09:19:00.000-08:002010-03-08T09:19:39.608-08:00Bees “restored to health” in Italy after this spring’s neonicotinoid-free maize sowing<a href="http://www.youris.com/Environment/Bees/Bees_restored_to_health_in_Italy_after_this_springs_neonicotinoidfree_maize_sowing.kl">Bees “restored to health” in Italy after this spring’s neonicotinoid-free maize sowing</a>The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-87612779621498023582010-03-06T07:30:00.000-08:002010-03-06T07:40:52.418-08:00Stupid Beekeepers: a real cause of bee decline?Are some beekeepers and breeders largely responsible for many of the disease and pest problems besetting our bees?<br /><br />My latest podcast suggests that far too many queens are imported into Britain and that new beekeepers are getting conned into buying packages when they thought they were buying nucs.<br /><br />Over 10,000 queen bees were brought into Britain in 2009. Over 100,000 were imported into Canada. Is it surprising that our hives are now full of exotic pests and viruses - and how much worse will it get before we see sense and ban imports?<br /><br /><a href="http://biobees.libsyn.com/">Podcast site</a><br /><br /><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-barefoot-beekeeper/id354105540">The Barefoot Beekeeper</a> on iTunesThe Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-24425947027089258672010-02-10T11:25:00.000-08:002010-02-10T11:30:02.128-08:00Introduction to Natural BeekeepingMindful that many of the people attending my weekend events and talks may not have a clear idea of what 'natural beekeeping' means, I have put together an article setting out <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/9693">my personal take on natural beekeeping</a> downloadable in just about every common format. You should be able to read it on almost any piece of wired hardware you may have lying around - so let me know what you think.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-36267774371333196942010-02-08T06:29:00.001-08:002010-02-08T06:43:15.459-08:00Our children will accuse us...<div><object width="420" height="339"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x78p4w" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x78p4w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="420" height="339" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x78p4w">nos_enfants_nous_accuseront</a></b><br /><i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/beloutte">beloutte</a></i></div>The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-927760843741024322010-02-04T03:23:00.000-08:002010-02-04T04:15:30.463-08:00Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast launchedHaving thought about it for a while, I have taken the plunge and started a <a href="http://biobees.libsyn.com/">Barefoot Beekeeper Podcast</a>. <br /><br />I'm still trying to work out why I find it easier to talk to a live audience than a microphone, so forgive me if there are a few 'ums and ahs' that I missed during editing. <br /><br />I hope to record a new podcast about every two weeks, but it will depend on the feedback I get. Do you prefer to read or to listen? Let me know on my new FaceBook page (search for Barefoot Beekeeper) and follow me on Twitter (BarefootBee).The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-65211886707305980632009-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:002009-12-07T08:22:22.905-08:00BBKA ex-president attacks Friends of the BeesGlyn Davies, who was president of the BBKA when they made the secret deal with Syngenta and Bayer around 2000-2001, and who organized the GM propaganda exercise at BBKA HQ in 2002, has attacked both me and Friends of the Bees in his editorial for the latest Devon BKA county journal 'Beekeeping'. Some consider this an abuse of his position as editor.<br /><br />You can read it as a scan <a href="http://www.biobees.com/images/scans/DBKA_editorial.pdf">here</a>.<br /><br />He says that he was <span style="font-style:italic;">'very disappointed...to receive an angry email... which rather churlishly (sic) condemned Syngenta... for announcing a major investment in research into the declining population of honeybees. It is better that Syngenta does not further research the possible role of its own pesticides. Others are independently.'</span><br /><br />Oh really - who is that, then?<br /><br />He goes on to describe Friends of the bees as sounding <span style="font-style:italic;">'cosy and well-intentioned' but that it aims 'to deprive bees of the treatments and medicines they need to help them overcome the pests and pathogens that modern trade and transport have spread around.'</span><br /><br />Apparently he sees the application of natural principles as 'deprivation'. And it is largely the beekeeping industry that has spread them around, with the support of the BBKA who have never condemned the practice of importing queens. <br /><br />He goes on <span style="font-style:italic;">'The exposed hatred in the email for the entire agrochemical industry shows that the core concerns of the writer are more political to the point of religion than apicultural.'</span><br /><br />Well, Glyn, it's hard for me to show any respect for an industry that has done so much damage to the planet, its people and its animals. And religion is not something I suffer from. <br /><br />I take it as a sign that we are having an impact on people's thinking about bees in the context of our toxic agricultural system when someone with such a big axe to grind starts attacking us in public - and simultaneously exposes his own prejudices and ignorance.<br /><br />Being savaged by a dead sheep comes to mind.The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21623140.post-31048945963989830732009-11-09T06:04:00.000-08:002009-11-09T06:05:26.401-08:00British Honeybee Research Sold to Syngenta“Putting Syngenta in charge of UK research into the causes of honeybee deaths is arguably the equivalent of putting the tobacco companies in charge of research into lung cancer, or asking the manufacturers of alco-pops to research the causes of teenage binge drinking.” * <br /><br />If you have not already heard, the giant pesticide manufacturer Syngenta has positioned itself as overseers of UK research into honeybee problems (see http://tinyurl.com/yeryyfl for full story). This means that we can wave goodbye to any truly objective British bee research, as - according to the press release announcing the funding - not one of the nominated university departments will be looking at pesticides as a potential cause of honeybee deaths.<br /><br /> At least part of the blame for such a reprehensible state of affairs can be laid squarely on the BBKA Executive Committees - past and present - for having sanctioned the endorsement deal with Syngenta and Bayer that lead to the BBKA's subsequent silence on the pesticides issue. <br /><br /> If you have not already seen it, I really recommend you watch the film The Vanishing of the Bees (see http://vanishingbees.co.uk/screenings for UK dates & venues). Better than anything I have yet seen on the subject, it examines the causes of bee die-offs in the USA and in Europe, and concludes - as so many others have done - that our toxic agricultural system is at the root of the bees' problems. I watched it last night, and afterwards answered questions from the audience, who were audibly shocked to hear that the BBKA takes money from Syngenta and Bayer for endorsing their pesticides. They were also clearly shocked at the extent to which the history of such companies is enmeshed with the Nazi's production of wartime nerve gas, and the web of lies they have spun around the real extent of the toxicity of many of their products. Even Bayer's flagship aspirin is now known to do more harm than good in healthy people (http://tinyurl.com/kwfpal), contrary to what the manufactu!<br /> rers have been telling us for 100 years.<br /><br />Vested interests are the real causes of bee deaths - of that I am convinced. Profit is God: shareholders' interests must be placed before the public good at all costs. Research that discovers inconvenient truths is suppressed: research departments that step out of line have their funds withdrawn. Don't just take my word for it - Scientists For Global Responsibility have just published a paper entitled 'Science and the Corporate Agenda: the detrimental effects of commercial influence on science and technology (see http://tinyurl.com/yh2jmg7 for free download).<br /><br />But there is hope. The Co-op has done a great job of drawing attention to the neonicotinoid issue by banning them from their 25,000 hectares of UK farmland and by sponsoring The Vanishing of the Bees. They are also funding research into the effects of pesticides on bees. There is a growing organic farming movement and more and more beekeepers are turning to more natural, chemical-free methods - finding that the Varroa mite is not such a problem as we have been led to believe.<br /><br />So what can you do?<br /><br />Friends of the Bees has been launched and will become more active as time and funds permit. Please support this new charity, which is devoted to the interests of all bees - and especially honeybees.<br /><br />Support our friends in the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Bees for Development and the Global Bee Project, who are also doing excellent work. <br /><br />Take a look at how you shop - could you do more to support organic and other chemical-free food producers - especially local ones?<br /><br />Take a long look at your beekeeping methods with a view to focusing more on the underlying health of your bees, and less on the honey crop. To paraphrase a well-worn phrase: think not what your bees can do for you, but what you can do for them.<br /><br />Phil Chandler<br /><br />links:<br /><br />Friends of the Bees - www.friendsofthebees.org<br />The Barefoot Beekeeper - www.biobees.com<br />Natural Beekeeping Network - www.naturalbeekeeping.org<br />Co-op Plan Bee - http://vanishingbees.co.uk/plan_bee<br />Vanishing of the Bees screenings - http://vanishingbees.co.uk/screenings/<br />Bumblebee Conservation Trust - www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk<br />Bees for Development - www.beesfordevelopment.org<br />Global Bee Project - www.theglobalbeeproject.com<br /><br /><br />* Graham White, a beekeeper and environmental author, commenting on Syngenta funding research into the disappearance of honeybees, The Herald, 4 October 2009The Barefoot Beekeeperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04850201021058226555noreply@blogger.com0