Scientists discover what’s killing the bees and it’s worse than you thought

[bvar22]

99. In 2006, My Wife & I moved FAR from Urban, Suburban, and Big Ag pollution,

far into the sparsely populated Woods of Western Arkansas,
surrounded by National Forest,
no Ag Farms, or Industry,
and few neighbors within a 3 mile radius.

We started Keeping Bees in the Spring of 2007,
and have maintained two healthy colonies of European Honey Bees since then.

We practice Low Stress, natural BeeKeeping.
We don't move our hives,
or feed our Bees Corn Syrup, a common practice even among "organic" BeeKeepers.

We DO harvest Honey,
but we leave our Bees PLENTY of their own honey for Winter,
and if it becomes necessary to feed them over Winter,
we will first fed them their own Honey from our stores,
or feed them a solution made from Cane Sugar.

Until someone can convince me that Corn Syrup is NOT contaminated with ANY GM pollen that has escaped the manufacturing, packaging, or transportation of GM Corn Syrup,
we will not even consider the possibility of feeding our Bees Corn Syrup.

Naturally, ANY and ALL GM crops and seeds are forever banned from our little hilltop,
along with ANY and ALL non-naturally occurring pesticides, fertilizers, or herbicides.

Our irrigation and drinking water comes from a natural Spring and rain water.

We have NOT had an incidence of CCD,
or any other problem with our Bees,
and still have the original line of Bees we started in 2007.
Our Bees are happy and healthy,
and we have fallen in love with these wonderful and fascinating creatures.
(It DOES take while for the natural fear of 50,000 swarming Bees to wear off)

We have met several other natural BeeKeepers in our area who practice these same methods, and they have had no problems with CCD either.

We believe that De-Centralized, small scale, low stress, natural BeeKeping
may be the answer to this problem.
but distance from the Cities, Suburbs (VERY toxic), and Commercial Agriculture
will be a necessity.

Honey Bees have a 3 mile forage radius,
and this radius will support only a handful of natural colonies.
When you pass a Commercial Bee Yard with stacks and stacks of BeeHives,
or pass a Semi Truck with hundreds of hives stacked on the back,
well that is part of the problem.
No wonder the Bees don't want to live there.
I wouldn't.

I realize this is only anecdotal testimony,
but our Bees seem to enjoy living here,
and we treat them well.



Early Honey Bounty in Central Arkansas
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1182412