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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
 Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 16:54:53
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There have been massive kills of bees in Germany in the last couple of weeks - you may have heard. The culprit has been found to have been one of Bayer's highly toxic seed dressings.
What you probably don't know is that the British Bee Keepers Association (BBKA) actually endorses some of Bayer's pesticides as being 'bee friendly' - which is actually far from the truth.
The BBKA accepts 'donations' from Bayer amounting to around £20,000 pa in return for Bayer being able to use their logo on some of their products.
There is a campaign to persuade the BBKA to STOP endorsing pesticides - see http://www.britishbeekeeping.com and to start supporting organic farming.
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Tavascarow
Member
United Kingdom
335 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 17:50:22
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Cheers for that.
Didn't realise BBKA took money from corperates especially chemical companies.
Scandalous.
I'm lucky that all the land around here is pasture so I have never had a colony go down to spray damage but I know from what I've read it can be devastating.
Going to copy your post & put it on another forum I frequent.
http://fotothing.com/Tavascarow |
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CGresley
Member
United Kingdom
289 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 19:19:21
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On our allotment are absolutely no honey bees. Only a few bumble bees. Not far away though are rape seed fields, and many acres in the UK are treated with the same type of pesticide used in Germany. My conclusion is the same pesticide is killing off the bees in our area. The same pesticides are claimed bee friendly by the BBKA. All they can say is the pesticide were applied wrongly. Rubbish. Poison is poison.
It just a click, the BBKA, looking after the big companies. And at the same time they are asking for tax payers money from the government to find out why the bees are dying. Quite simply the 'bee frienly' poisons they are endorsing are killing of the bees.
The methods of keeping bees recommended by the BBKA are totally wrong. For that reason I'm starting my bee-keeping using no antibiotics and treatments (poisons and acid) and a natural bee-friendly bee hive.
For those interested in bees look at Dr D Heaf website http://www.heaf.freeuk.com/warre/ . He's got a free book for download on Warré hives. I found it a very enjoyable read.
http://plotno2.blogspot.com/ |
Edited by - CGresley on 01 Jun 2008 19:19:49 |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 19:51:58
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quote:
Originally posted by CGresley
For those interested in bees look at Dr D Heaf website http://www.heaf.freeuk.com/warre/ . He's got a free book for download on Warré hives. I found it a very enjoyable read.
Good for you. There is a section for the Abbé Warré vertical top bar hive at http://www.biobees.com/forum and we also host a mirror for David Heaf's excellent translations.
I have noticed a considerable revival of interest in beekeeping among younger people in the last 2-3 years, which is excellent news. The top bar hive is a low-cost way to keep bees, especially suitable for chemical-free management.
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Dave n dogs
Member
1085 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 21:06:27
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The yanks are concerned about bee die off. What happens there is more than likely to happen here. IMO it all points to GM, the likes of Monsanto. I could get on me soapbox over this but I'll leave that for later.
*trust in The Lord but always lock your bicycle* |
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digmyplot
Moderator
1320 Posts |
Posted - 01 Jun 2008 : 22:07:21
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Hi
I am afraid I forget all the details, but I remember seeing a website claiming that slug pellets are safe, with no mention of who was behind the website. It had a very twee name which I can't recall. Somewhere the word bayer apppeared. I e mailed them asking if that was the same as Bayer Leverkusen Football Club and they proudly replied yes it was. The football club started out as the works team of the chemicals firm. The website was masquerading as independent advice.
cheers
www.digmyplot.co.uk |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2008 : 15:39:16
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quote:
Originally posted by digmyplot
Hi
I am afraid I forget all the details, but I remember seeing a website claiming that slug pellets are safe, with no mention of who was behind the website. It had a very twee name which I can't recall. Somewhere the word bayer apppeared. I e mailed them asking if that was the same as Bayer Leverkusen Football Club and they proudly replied yes it was. The football club started out as the works team of the chemicals firm. The website was masquerading as independent advice.
This tactic is commonplace - see www.corporatewatch.com and www.spinwatch.com
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Tavascarow
Member
United Kingdom
335 Posts |
Posted - 02 Jun 2008 : 19:33:15
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Just spent a while perusing biobees site & found it very interesting.
Even tempted to give it a go myself.
Thanks for the link.
http://fotothing.com/Tavascarow |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 04 Jun 2008 : 11:54:37
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quote:
Originally posted by Tavascarow
Just spent a while perusing biobees site & found it very interesting.
Even tempted to give it a go myself.
This style of beekeeping is particularly suitable for home/back yard/smallholding scale honey production, as well as for people who are more interested in bees for their own sake than in what they do for us.
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 05 Jun 2008 : 20:37:48
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I will be on BBC News24 talking about the BBKA/Bayer pesticides issue this weekend (June 7-8) at 3.30pm BST (GMT+1) on Saturday and Sunday + 10.30am Sunday. After that, it should be available on the BBC web site.
Let's hope the BBKA are watching.
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 17 Jun 2008 : 10:46:55
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I will be on BBC News24 talking about the BBKA/Bayer pesticides issue this weekend (June 7-8) at 3.30pm BST (GMT+1) on Saturday and Sunday + 10.30am Sunday.
See it here: http://vimeo.com/1158245
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Tavascarow
Member
United Kingdom
335 Posts |
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belinda griffin
Starting Member
37 Posts |
Posted - 18 Jun 2008 : 00:36:30
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quote:
Originally posted by CGresley
On our allotment are absolutely no honey bees. Only a few bumble bees. Not far away though are rape seed fields, and many acres in the UK are treated with the same type of pesticide used in Germany. My conclusion is the same pesticide is killing off the bees in our area. The same pesticides are claimed bee friendly by the BBKA. All they can say is the pesticide were applied wrongly. Rubbish. Poison is poison.
It just a click, the BBKA, looking after the big companies. And at the same time they are asking for tax payers money from the government to find out why the bees are dying. Quite simply the 'bee frienly' poisons they are endorsing are killing of the bees.
The methods of keeping bees recommended by the BBKA are totally wrong. For that reason I'm starting my bee-keeping using no antibiotics and treatments (poisons and acid) and a natural bee-friendly bee hive.
For those interested in bees look at Dr D Heaf website http://www.heaf.freeuk.com/warre/ . He's got a free book for download on Warré hives. I found it a very enjoyable read.
I am taking delivery of my first hive on friday, weather permiting I am waiting to hear if i am allowed to site it on my allotment so have decided to put it on the flat roof of my house.Cant decide if i shall put one on my allotment even if i get permission due to the farmers spraying all around our plots, but then i think the house hive bees may travel to the allotments and surrounding fields any way. are the sprays a danger when being applied or for a time after??its all very worrying, not sure what to do??
http://plotno2.blogspot.com/
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 18 Oct 2008 : 08:41:10
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I recently circulated a warning about possible Imidacloprid contamination in sugar beet, which many beekeepers feed to their bees. Since this has caused some discussion, I thought you may like to hear some facts that I discovered while checking the original story.
1. Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid pesticide (i.e. similar in chemical structure to nicotine) now routinely used as a seed dressing on sugar beet - for up to two years in the UK, considerably longer in the USA and elsewhere.
2. Imidacloprid is a systemic insecticide, meaning that it permeates every cell of the plant, even if only used as a seed dressing. That means it WILL be present in the sugar, as processing does not affect it.
3. Imidacloprid is a powerful neurotoxin, lethal to bees in doses as small as five parts per billion, and has serious sub-lethal effects - including disorientation - at much lower doses. To put that in context, if you took ONE THOUSAND METRIC TONNES of 1:1 syrup made with beet sugar, and stirred in just ONE TEASPOONFUL of Imidacloprid, you would have a mixture capable of killing bees. Please read that last sentence again and think about it.
4. Imidacloprid is persistent in plant cells and in the soil (half-life in soil under aerobic conditions of up to 997 days), where it kills ALL insects - including beneficial ones - and it accumulates, season on season, until it reaches a 'stable' level, assumed by some authorities to be something like 10 parts per billion. It is also likely to contaminate ground water.
5. The US 'Environmental Protection Agency' has approved permitted levels of Imidacloprid in sugar beet of 0.05 parts per million - that is at least TEN TIMES the lethal dose for bees.
Do you still think it is safe to feed sugar beet syrup to your bees?
And where is the British Bee Keepers Association in all this? Still taking money from Bayer in return for endorsing some of their pesticides (not, so far, including neonicotinoids) as 'Bee Friendly'. Has the BBKA come out with a statement condemning the use of Imidacloprid, or the closely related Clothianidin, which killed nearly half a billion bees in Germany in May this year? Have they ever issued a statement supporting the German and French beekeepers' call for a ban on neonicotinoids? Has the BBKA ever criticised ANY of Bayer's products? All I have seen is a series of half-hearted, limp statements that defend the status quo.
However, please do not imagine that I am 'anti-BBKA'. I want the BBKA to be a strong campaigning body on behalf of bees and beekeepers, not a puppet of Bayer's marketing department. They should be free and independent of all commercial interests and should represent beekeepers, NOT chemical corporations that have no interest in the health of bees, other than the profit they may make from selling medications like Bayvarol (that ultimately make the Varroa problem worse by selecting for pyrethroid-resistant mites).
I urge all UK beekeepers to lobby the BBKA through their local branch to abandon their mute acceptance of 'cash for chemicals' from Bayer, Syngenta or any other company, and to to request that they make a clear statement supporting organic farming, which is the only safe option for bees.
Philip Chandler
www.biobees.com
NOTES
1. The facts about Imidacloprid in this message have been checked by a microbiologist.
2. You can read more about Imidacloprid here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imidacloprid
3. You can read the EPA's document on Imidacloprid here: http://www.epa.gov/EPA-PEST/1998/September/Day-18/p25085.htm
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Sweet Pea
Member
United Kingdom
1782 Posts |
Posted - 18 Oct 2008 : 20:48:46
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This is apalling. With the multitude of rules and regulations how can this happen?
Aimee (Epsom, Surrey) |
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beesontoast
Starting Member
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 05 Feb 2009 : 20:21:09
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It's a question of who makes the rules.
chemical-free, sustainable, top bar beekeeping www.biobees.com |
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Bees killed by Bayer's pesticides: BBKA say nothin
