Second trial replicating CCD with neonicotinoids.

[Johnthefarmer]

I was pleased to see in the Parliamentary select committee evidence that there was a lot of talk about obliging farmers to mitigate potential harm by planting wildflower strips and generally creating habitat for invertebrates and pollinators. Farmers should be aware that they need to compensate for potential environmental degradation and to be fair to them I think a lot are already clued in to that. This is probably a more realistic way to go as there is a pressing need to feed the world and in spite of what some people say, the vast majority of organic systems do produce less food.

Last year this organic farm produced more food- lambs, calves, cereals, than in its previous 'conventional' history. This year has been poorer. I blame the weather.

More to the point, it's one thing to plant wee strips of wildflowers round your fields, but much better not to kill off everything within them.

[prakel]

I'd have thought that everybody else, and beekeepers in paticular, have grounds to object.

Depends on whether they (or their pets) benefit from the produce from these farms surely?

[Johnthefarmer]

Depends on whether they (or their pets) benefit from the produce from these farms surely?

No....

[prakel]

No....

If they want ME to take them seriously it does. I'm sure that I'm not alone either.

You've still failed to explain to me why you believe that beekeepers 'in paticular' have grounds to protest. Are you going to differentiate between people with colonies in these areas of monoagriculture which you refer to and those beekeepers in the inner cities who keep popping up in the media to tell us that their bees are fine because they're shielded from those dastardly farmers in the countryside?

[Johnthefarmer]

If they want ME to take them seriously it does. I'm sure that I'm not alone either.

You've still failed to explain to me why you believe that beekeepers 'in paticular' have grounds to protest. Are you going to differentiate between people with colonies in these areas of monoagriculture which you refer to and those beekeepers in the inner cities who keep popping up in the media to tell us that their bees are fine because they're shielded from those dastardly farmers in the countryside?

Everybody, and everything, is affected if farmers do bad stuff- clearly. The reason I suggest that beekeepers are especially impinged, and therefore have more reason to protest/ object, is that, uniquely, bees are 'stock' whose territory is not bounded by their owners' boundaries. They have free reign over land which is managed by others- often farmers.

If the management of that land pollutes it in any way, reduces its biodiversity, makes it nasty, then beekeepers should be amongst the first to notice and should be the most vocal about it.

Stands to reason...

[Jon]

Stands to reason...

...yet curiously one of the huge advantages for beekeepers over the past couple of decades has been the spread of oil seed rape as a crop which helps spring build up, and the honey crop which comes off it even though we are told over and over again, often by non beekeepers, that it produces bee Armageddon. In the real world it is beneficial to our bees.

[gavin]

If the management of that land pollutes it in any way, reduces its biodiversity, makes it nasty, then beekeepers should be amongst the first to notice and should be the most vocal about it.

Stands to reason...

And so if observant beekeepers do look hard at their bees - or look hard at the data they've collected from very large numbers of colonies they manage - and say, well, I can't see any effect on my bees, what then? Will you listen to them?

[Johnthefarmer]

And so if observant beekeepers do look hard at their bees - or look hard at the data they've collected from very large numbers of colonies they manage - and say, well, I can't see any effect on my bees, what then? Will you listen to them?

I wouldn't object to organically grown OSR, and it's clear that many beekeepers are happy with neonic OSR.

I do not like thousands of acres of any crop that's always treated with pesticides. And what is the effect of the 92% of neonics that don't get into the plant? Presumably it kills off any and all susceptible soil bugs, and travels into the water table ..

[Dan]

Highly treated, monoculture agriculture is increasingly adopted as it can be profitable for the producer, but it has severe reprecussions for our health and the wider environment.

Where? Ain't no monoculture here, save for the tracts of permanent pasture.

[Johnthefarmer]

Where? Ain't no monoculture here, save for the tracts of permanent pasture.

Any decent permanent pasture should be a good thing for bees. My own include about five different sown grasses. several white clovers, red clover, chikory. plantain and often several other sown herbs. Over time other local species are probably going to establish themselves. Ideally this balance should provide something for bees and my grazing animals throughout the year.

This post is of little relevance to the original thread title, but there you go....