[Pollinator] Fwd: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016

Fri Sep 9 23:28:19 PDT 2016

I fully support Stephanie's conclusion and could hardly have put it better
myself. One needs to actually measure bee keeper practices ( and one has to
ask how reliable are self-reports? How consistent are the behaviour of
beekeepers across seasons?), pesticide exposure, pathogen exposure,
climatic variables, foraging resources available in the environment (pollen
and nectar resource abundance, and their distribution across the
landscape), perhaps even competition between different bee populations
(managed, wild, and native), or predators, to parse out the effects of
various factors that might contribute to honeybee health. What has been
recently shown in both lab and field studies is that pesticides do
negatively affect honeybee survival and foraging ability at concentrations
experienced in nature. It is also consistently shown that loss of flowering
plants has a negative effect on pollinators, including on pollinator
health. Pesticides also can stress bees, interacting with other stressors
like nutritional limitations, adverse weather, and pathogens.
Given that pesticides are known to affect other pollinators and insects, it
is parsimonious to conclude that honeybees are also affected, whereas
anecdotal reports of bad beekeeper management based on single examples that
do not stand up to scientific rigour (replication, controls etc.) cannot be
considered to be reliable.
Regards

On 10 September 2016 at 05:42, Stephanie Parreira <
parreirastephanie at gmail.com> wrote:

> This is a highly over-simplified opinion about the neonicotinoid problem.
> I would have further questions for the above person, such as, are there
> weather differences between the region where the colonies died and the
> place your colonies are (windy conditions can blow neonic-laden dust into
> colonies and onto foraging bees, so if one place is windier than the other,
> bee exposure and response may be different)? Is the area of planted corn
> significantly different from the area of corn in Ontario (more corn planted
> = more potential exposure to neonics and less alternative forage)?
>
> Anecdotal evidence will do no one any good, whether that anecdotal
> evidence argues against neonicotinoid use or for it. We should take things
> like this with a grain of salt and understand that there are many factors
> at play that may increase the potential of pesticides to severely affect
> honey bee colonies.  I am not saying that beekeeper practices cannot be
> improved to increase colony survival, but to blame beekeeping practices
> without any comparison or contrast between beekeeping practices, landscape
> and foraging environment, and pesticide exposure (in-hive or forager
> residues), it is irresponsible to jump to this conclusion.
>
> (Furthermore, even if neonicotinoids are not the issue for honey bee
> colonies specifically, we should still be concerned about their many
> detrimental effects on native bee populations, which have been demonstrated
> in the scientific literature time and time again.)
>
> On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 7:24 AM, Laurie Adams <lda at pollinator.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: John Purdy <johnrpurdy at gmail.com>
>> Date: Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 6:59 AM
>> Subject: Fwd: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016
>> To: Laurie Adams <LDA at pollinator.org>
>>
>>
>> Here is an important observation from a beekeeper in western Canada.  It
>> helps to build confidence in what I found in my recent bee health study.
>> perhaps it is worth posting. (a section is a mile square or 640 acres)
>>
>> John
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Alberta Buzzing <donotreply at wordpress.com>
>> Date: Sun, Sep 4, 2016 at 10:40 PM
>> Subject: [New post] Honeybees and Corn 2016
>> To: johnrpurdy at gmail.com
>>
>>
>> Lee Townsend posted: "I had a yard of 40 hives on a quarter section of
>> treated corn this year, and it is interesting as I am not seeing any of the
>> effects on the bees that groups like the Ontario Beekeepers Association
>> claims to take place in this situation.  My bees are of th"
>>
>> New post on *Alberta Buzzing*
>> <http://albertabuzzing.com/?author=1> Honeybees and Corn 2016
>> <http://albertabuzzing.com/2016/09/honeybees-and-corn-2016/> by Lee
>> Townsend <http://albertabuzzing.com/?author=1>
>>
>> I had a yard of 40 hives on a quarter section of treated corn this year,
>> and it is interesting as I am not seeing any of the effects on the bees
>> that groups like the Ontario Beekeepers Association claims to take place in
>> this situation.  My bees are of the same species that are in Ontario, the
>> corn is treated the same way as it is in Ontario, and the planting was done
>> the same as in Ontario.
>>
>> Leads me to think the problem is not neonics, but beekeeper management.
>> It is truly unfortunate that the Ontario Beekeepers Association and groups
>> like it refuse to admit what exactly they are doing with their colonies,
>> with proof to back up their claims.
>>
>>
>> *Lee Townsend <http://albertabuzzing.com/?author=1>* | September 4, 2016
>> at 8:40 pm | URL: http://wp.me/p5JjBC-1X
>>
>> Comment
>> <http://albertabuzzing.com/2016/09/honeybees-and-corn-2016/#respond>    See
>> all comments
>> <http://albertabuzzing.com/2016/09/honeybees-and-corn-2016/#comments>
>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> John Purdy PhD
>> Environmental Scientist
>> Abacus Consulting Services Ltd
>>
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