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joanne

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 7100
Location: Morecambe, Lancashire

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 09 12:45 pm Post subject:

The trouble is that Defra have a real problem recognising that anyone apart from the NBU are actually doing any training etc. - That stupid woman this week who admitted that they hadn't paid Varroa and Colony Loss enough attention and money

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7951009.stm

I know the BBKA are contentious for many reasons but the associations do the majority of new Beekeeper training and many 2nd Beekeepers are starting to take the Basic assessment - all these contribute towards empowering Hobby (don't like the word Amateur makes us sound crappy) Beekeepers to actually look after their bee's better

It sounds as though the majority of the money is going to be spent on encouraging folk to register on BeeBase - I can think of plenty of other more important issues that money could be spent on

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Fri Mar 20, 09 1:17 pm Post subject:

arvo wrote:

Worth watching if he can fix it. (Mind you the sound isn't *that* great when its working properly.

).
It's a uni-professor-expert-type from a US uni (where they have things like funding and government grants) giving a lecture on her findings to a local bee-keepers association.
Basically they're investigating *all* the possible causes of colony collapse disorder to rule out what it can't be and leave us with whats left.
Roughly they found:
1) It ain't mobile phones
2) It probably ain't Nosema Apis/Ceranae either
3) 85% ish of the colonies that collapsed had some other wacky disease called Israel Acute Paralysis Virus as well (she expressly said, this wasn't causing it but was a good indicator).
4) There were really high (toxic to bees) concentrations of neonicotinoid pesticides in the bees and the brood of all these hives. Although they can't conclude anything decisively yet, it seems this is the most likely avenue. The pesticides (some of which we're using to treat the bees with) could either be killing bees directly or stressing the bees so much that its a bit like AIDS and they fall prey to something else that they'd otherwise shuck off. She said what with resistant Varroa as well, it may be that the pesticides are the straw that breaks the camels back.
5) They have done a lot of tests to see what toxicologists call the 50% point (the point at which a substance kills 50% of test subjects) of some of these pesticides and it seems that a lot of the manufacturers claims for the safety of these products is incorrect. (I.e they're a lot more posionous than they initially claimed they were).

Did I miss anything Tav?
Ps where the heck did you ever *find* that vid in the first place??? Great internet searching.

I think that just about sums it up arvo.
I 'found it over at Phil Chandlers (Beesontoast) Top Bar & Natural Beekeeping Forum
so he deserves the credit not me.
One thing that did make me prick up my ears was that (in the USA) bat populations have crashed also which is scary.
Like I said earlier to me it seems like 'silent spring' all over again.

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