# Article from Washington Post



## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

I agree with the article.

"We don't need no education" Oh wait that's exactly what we need! We need beekeepers who are more knowledgeable about bees, their needs, and how we manage "should" them.

What we don't need is multi millions of tax dollars funding CCD Research. Spend the money on our veterans!


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## phyber (Apr 14, 2015)

I also like how they believe "colonies" is somehow equal to "bees"

Sure, there may be an incline of colonies of bees, as it's easy to go from 1 to 2 by just doing a split...but that doesn't mean there are more bees out in the fields pollinating and collecting.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

They aren't counting bees but are counting beekeepers and how many hives they keep. 
It's sort of like the hunting data I turn in each year.

Most years I lie and say I didn't kill any birds. Why?
Suppose I'm honest and say I killed 152 mallard ducks at such and such WMA. Next year everyone would be in my spot.

The beekeeping data is equally in-accurate I suspect. Not everyone registers all their hives and some don't register any of them. Why? They don't want some idiot "bee inspector" making them burn it all just to find out "aw shucks, it wasn't AFB after all".
I've met all types and there are many variations of beekeepers. Some off the radar, some on.


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## beeware10 (Jul 25, 2010)

aunt betty-- with your opinion of bee inspectors it looks like your the type of beekeeper that inspectors protect us from.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

aunt betty said:


> They aren't counting bees but are counting beekeepers and how many hives they keep.
> It's sort of like the hunting data I turn in each year.
> 
> Most years I lie and say I didn't kill any birds. Why?
> ...


with stories like this? can you blame people? FWIW I have my hives registered but it does make one second guess it. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...05/monsanto-roundup-effects-on-honeybees.aspx


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

I think the article is pretty much on the mark. Through this all no crops have suffered for lack of available bees for pollination. There are a couple of ways to quantify colony strength. The most obvious is the industry's ability to come up with over a million and a half colonies that make grade for almond production and they do so in early February when colonies are seasonally at a low ebb and many hives stay in Florida raising a citrus crop. Weak hives? Not when we have concrete evidence that almond production continues to grow. Secondly honey production has increased in recent years years and this is at a time when modern farming practices continues to reduce the amount of forage. Sure beekeepers have challenges, lots of them, but as the article correctly points out, none of this is a result of government action or more funding for more research but rather a product of our free market system. If it's profitable the beekeepers will figure a way and the bees will come, the bees most definitely will come.


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## Harley Craig (Sep 18, 2012)

beeware10 said:


> aunt betty-- with your opinion of bee inspectors it looks like your the type of beekeeper that inspectors protect us from.




Ha ha, no we just live in a Nanny state. Looks like you do to. Luckily down state we have pretty cool bee inspectors the only time mine ever " bugged" me was when a neighbor bee keeper thought he got an africanized queen from texas. So he came around to make sure the genetics didn't spread to my hives. For that reason alone, I'm glad I was registered


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

aunt betty>> very well thought out and useful.
just one thing, maybe the idiot is not the bee inspector.


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

clyderoad said:


> aunt betty>> very well thought out and useful.
> just one thing, maybe the idiot is not the bee inspector.


OUCH, that's uncalled for.

Just stating the facts. Am in a very large bee club and have met several un-registered beeks. (bought equipment from one) 
Myself? I'm registered and have been since 1978. You can not unregister but can be "inactive status" here in Illinois. I'm not condoning or recommending that anyone should not register, just saying that some don't and why they said they didn't.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

It is an appropriate response to your post. 
And in my book it was called for.


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

It would be interesting to see a graph displaying the number of "packages" and "nucs" sold each year since 2006, and compare those numbers with the increase in producing colonies shown on the graph in the article.


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