Honey Bee Conservation

It is being reported seemingly everywhere that a 9 year old boy was saved from an “attack” of a “swarm of bees”.

I have searched the web to find may instances of this story from a variety of online news stations and  newspapers, etc.. and it is pretty much the same canned material over and over again.

This is a clear example of irresponsible reporting to me.  Something we have come not only to expect from the media, but to not even question anymore.

I am not doubting the boy and dog were stung, I’m sure they were.  My question is, who verified that it was bees that did it?

Apparently, no one bothered to verify that it was indeed honey bees, in a swarm, that “attacked” the boy and his dog.

To be honest, from the description of the “attack”,  I am more likely to suspect Yellow Jackets in this case than bees. They are not the same and it doesn’t require one to be an entomologist to find that out.

It’s a sensationalist story that has continued to go repeated un-verified by a supposedly “objective” and fact based media  (I say that only in jest as  I don’t believe the media knows hows to be objective and fact based anymore, it pays more to tell people what they want to hear, it seems.)

Some people might say that it’s not important what stung the boy, the point is a bunch of insects attacked him.   I say this is a sad way to look at it.

Our honey bee community of beekeepers, conservationists, pollinators and honey producers is working very hard to educate the public on the truth of how honey bees behave and help human society.  It is due to irresponsible and cavalier attitudes that the honey bee community suffers damaging and non-fact based fear that continuously pushes our efforts back.

Once again, an ineffective and irresponsible media leaves us with more work because they could not be  bothered to fact check a story before pushing it out to the public.

In this article at AOL news we have some good news on the adulterated honey war…

Eleven Chinese and German executives and six of their food supply and honey export companies were charged Wednesday with 44 counts of conspiring to illegally import Chinese-origin honey, including honey tainted with antibiotics, into the U.S. by mislabeling it as originating in other countries to avoid paying anti-dumping fees, Fitzgerald said.

Why the foreign intrigue with something as benign and universally loved as honey?

The one-word answer is money. Tens of millions of dollars, and that’s just what the field agents and federal prosecutors can prove at this point.

These are not nickel-and-dime scams.

“They are charged with conspiring to import more than $40 million of Chinese honey to avoid paying anti-dumping duties of approximately $80 million,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in the Pacific Northwest. (HSI was formally known as ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.)

With the crack down on cheap, adulterated honey having, hopefully, more of an impact, perhaps our honey producers can get some respect from the big honey packers who choose to buy cheap foreign honey up till now.

According to this report by Kim Kaplan of the United States Department of Agriculture-Research, Education, and Economics

Losses of managed honey bee colonies nationwide totaled 33.8 percent from all causes from October 2009 to April 2010, according to a survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). Beekeepers identified starvation, poor weather, and weak colonies going into winter as the top reasons for mortality in their operations.

This is an increase from overall losses of 29 percent reported from a similar survey covering the winter of 2008-2009, and similar to the 35.8 percent losses for the winter of 2007-2008.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In just a few years after Africanized honey bees were introduced to Brazil in 1956, the aggressive bees had dominated and ruined domestic hives throughout South and Central America. According to University of Florida research, however, the same story isn’t playing out in North America…

…Jerry Hayes, head of apiary inspection at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, worries that a more severe economic impact on beekeepers may come from overzealous zoning of domestic beekeepers due to misguided worries that having domestic bees may attract the Africanized bees.

“Honey is a byproduct of pollination, which is the most important aspect of managed honey bees, he said. “If beekeepers are zoned, ordinanced and restricted out of areas because of fear — then it is people putting the strain on the keepers and their ability to produce, not the Africanized bees.”

Polish beekeeper Josef Guzy found still alive in coffin

Mr Guzy was rushed into intensive care, and after weeks of recovery he is back home to tend his bees.

“Josef had gone to the barn where he keeps his beloved bees when he collapsed and fell to the ground,” said Jerzy Wisniewski, a spokesman for the Regional Ambulance Service in Katowice….

…Mr Guzy has shown his gratitude to the man he credits with giving him a second life. “The undertaker saved my life. I am so grateful. The first thing I did when I got out of hospital was take him a pot of honey,” he said.

Wisconson considers a bill to protect beekeepers and consumers from “Honey Laundering”.

In an opinion piece published today in the Jackson County Chronicle, Senator Kathleen Vinehout (D) described legislation she introduced to the state Senate establishing a standard for honey in Wisconsin.  If passed, the bill would require that food sold as “honey” meets the global standard for honey (pdf).  This standard describes what honey is made of, and what it can or can’t contain.  Vinehout’s proposed legislation also allows for injured parties to collect damages and attorneys fees from entities that knowingly violate these standards.

The article

A federal judge banned the sale of a Bayer Crop Science pesticide that environmental groups and commercial beekeepers say is potentially toxic to the nation’s threatened honeybee population.

Cote’s decision does not explicitly address the inconclusive impact the pesticide might have on honeybees. Instead, she faulted the EPA for ignoring steps required in any pesticide approval process, including failing to take public comment and failing to publish Bayer’s application and the agency’s approval in the Federal Register.

“The EPA utterly failed to comply with these procedural requirements and has offered no explanation whatsoever for these shortcomings,” Cote wrote.

On a personal note, I have to question the motivation of a federal agency to not abide by the procedures to protect the public interest in the first place.

It has been documented in other situations that well placed “donations” and other so called ‘incentives’ by large corporations have influenced and precipitated govt agency mis-steps in the past.

I expect federal agencies to honor their charge and uphold the public trust at all times, at all costs.  If Bayer crop sciences corp has benefitted from the inappropriate approval and usage of a product they sell, then they must accept that this product, due to not being introduced to the public market in the correctly proscribed manner would lead to it being discontinues.

I don’t ever recall them filing complaints that their product was being released before it had gon e through the process correctly.  They took the money and ran.

One of the biggest indicator s of typical un-ethical behavior from profit oriented corporations.

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

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

Tax exemptions eyed

Last year, for example, lawmakers adopted a series of tax breaks for bee keepers. Yes, bee keepers. They get business and occupation levy reductions on things like pollination services. And they get a sales tax break on the sale of bees themselves.

Saying Thanks for our honey bees.

When you give thanks at your holiday table this year, I invite you to salute the honeybees for the annual cornucopia. From blueberries to Brussels sprouts, carrots to coconuts, walnuts to watermelons, honeybees pollinate the plants that provide much of what we eat — at Thanksgiving and year-round.