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As soon as I looked into the plight of the Honey Bees, one thing stood out to me immediately. The beekeepers are continually poisoning the bees with deadly smoke to "calm" them and they have been doing this for generations. Engulfing bees with smoke is a very dangerous, primitive method that has never been changed and I believe the accumulative effect of doing that has finally caught up and is taking it's toll on the bees. Below is a reply I received from my first inquiry to a local beekeeper:
"There are about as many different materials used in smokers as there are beekeepers. I use pine needles because they are handy. The smoke does calm the bees and I use it any time I go into a hive."
Pine needles? I can't even name all the toxins in pine needle smoke. Of course it calms them, they are poisoned into a semi comatose state. Has anyone ever heard of anesthetizing any other animal with smoke? A veterinarian would be sued for medical malpractice. Beekeepers completely fill the hive with this smoke several times a year. The smoke is also getting into the honey, by the way.
But, wait, it doesn't stop there. When I visited the USDA site and read of their ongoing study of the bees' plight, I discovered the following:
1. The USDA smokes the bees to sedate them while they do studies to see what is making them sick.
2. They wonder why the bees just abandon the hives and disappear. (Wouldn't you if you were continually being poisoned and your hive is growing bacteria and who knows what else?)
3. They have now discovered that smoking bees might kill mites. The USDA is considering recommending smoking bees even more to combat mites. (Of course it kills mites, smoke kills just about everything, including bees. Would they recommend this method for ridding their children or their puppies or birds of mites?)
So, there is a healthy second hand smoke? Wait til the tobacco industry hears that smoking pine needles is good for living things. And being completely engulfed in it has a "calming" effect.
I am amazed that the smoke thing just goes right over their heads. Too bad it's not going over the bees' heads. I've seen a lot of blundering of wildlife in my day but, this has to bee one of the worst. Any dentist can tell you that bacteria love a smoker's mouth. And, if you add sugar to that you have the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive in. What? The bees are being overrun with bacterial infections? Hard to fathom.
Has anyone sat in a smoke filled bar some night and then have to wash it out of your hair and your clothes? Not to mention coughing your head off for a couple of days. Now, imagine all the tiny little hairs on a bee's body collecting all that oily smoke residue and them not beeing able to wash it off. Or, worse yet, having to lick it off. Plus, the effect that breathing smoke would have on their tiny little respiratory systems. They passed laws nationwide to protect us from second hand smoke. I am totally amazed and dumfounded.
Here is a suggestion:
QUIT POISONING THE BEES WITH SMOKE AND WONDERING WHY THEY GET SICK!
