What makes a beekeeper - a special beekeeper?

[Jon]

Hi Jon

Beekeeping is an escape from the madness of this unjust world around us! If you get no such pleasure or buzz, perhaps you might try philately. It is good to be young at heart!

Rergards

Eric

I think you are misunderstanding my point. Of course I am passionate about beekeeping, especially bee breeding and native bees.
But....I think it is important to try and avoid making false claims.
I remember on the bbka forum a couple of years ago Uncle Phil Chandler used to spend his time insulting other posters who didn't agree with him.
His acolytes excused his behaviour due to his 'passion and enthusiasm' for defending bees.
Passion and enthusiasm are great - as long as they are not coupled with a suspension of reality or belief in complete nonsense.

[Eric McArthur]

[QUOTE=gavin;3306]Eric, there is no need for that. I know that there is quite a lot of pollen in honey. I also know that in the pollen loads honeybees bring back there are *some* (a few) airborne pollen grains including grass and nettle. I've seen them and counted them and reported on them. Presumably they get into the honey too.
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Hi Gavin
Of course you did! Just that your phraseology in this instance was nearly as bad as the Daily Mail journalese that took such a pounding early on!
This thread was short and sharp and fun! I hope poor Gloria does not get wind of it Despite being much like the rest of us beekeepers – ordinary folk think we are bunch of nuts! Gloria looks too be extremely well qualified, is obviously highly intelligent and has erudite connections – viz: Among her legion of fans is Dr Milton Wainwright, senior lecturer in molecular biology at Sheffield University, author of an acclaimed book on the history of penicillin – and also of the intro to Gloria’s honey tome. (More a eulogy, actually.)
She seems to have been Waxing strong as well Lady Wax Chandler, indeed, and to boot she also donates to childrens’ charities. Some lady!
I have deemed it an honour to have had the task of defending her against the slings and arrows of the dreadful real world mentioned by a few thread contributors.
Bye the bye, did you ever contact Peter about the DVD – to listen to Jeff Pettis and van Engelsdorp’s magic words condemning imidacloprid, after they proved, by repeating the procedures carried out by the French microbiologists work pasted below, in whole colony trials that the substance, at homeopathic(untraceable) levels in conjunction with Nosema killed bee colonies?
Invoking the Precautionary Principle would be good!

Best regards
Eric
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Interactions between Nosema microspores and a neonicotinoid weaken honeybees (Apis mellifera).
Alaux C, Brunet JL, Dussaubat C, Mondet F, Tchamitchan S, Cousin M, Brillard J, Baldy A, Belzunces LP, Le Conte Y.
INRA, UMR 406 Abeilles et Environnement, Laboratoire Biologie et Protection de l'abeille, Site Agroparc, 84914 Avignon, France. cedric.alaux@avignon.inra.fr
Abstract
Global pollinators, like honeybees, are declining in abundance and diversity, which can adversely affect natural ecosystems and agriculture. Therefore, we tested the current hypotheses describing honeybee losses as a multifactorial syndrome, by investigating integrative effects of an infectious organism and an insecticide on honeybee health. We demonstrated that the interaction between the microsporidia Nosema and a neonicotinoid (imidacloprid) significantly weakened honeybees. In the short term, the combination of both agents caused the highest individual mortality rates and energetic stress. By quantifying the strength of immunity at both the individual and social levels, we showed that neither the haemocyte number nor the phenoloxidase activity of individuals was affected by the different treatments. However, the activity of glucose oxidase, enabling bees to sterilize colony and brood food, was significantly decreased only by the combination of both factors compared with control, Nosema or imidacloprid groups, suggesting a synergistic interaction and in the long term a higher susceptibility of the colony to pathogens. This provides the first evidences that interaction between an infectious organism and a chemical can also threaten pollinators, interactions that are widely used to eliminate insect pests in integrative pest management.
PMID: 20050872 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]PMCID: PMC2847190Free PMC Article

[gavin]

I also noted your faulty parenthesis when you were urging us to be inspired at the start of the thread Eric, but I didn't think it worth commenting on.

Eric is now taking this off on one of these tangents which can irritate some people and potentially occupy a lot of space with perhaps a cut-and-paste steeplechase too. For those who want to carry it on I've copied this post to the 'Environment' section and we can discuss it there. Feel free to continue to discuss enthusiastic bee-related human health claims and naive beekeeping together with snake oil salesmen here.

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?397-Imidacloprid-and-Nosema

G.

[Trog]

Unfortunately the world we live in is full of new age tripe and drivel and it has nothing to do with enthusiasm or its sister concept passion..

Oh, good. I'm glad somebody else said it first

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Gavin"
As I wrote in a previous thread, in the past tense. "This thread was short and sharp and fun"!
The pesticdes issue will come back again and again, not necesarily on this Forum, and haunt us all!

Eric

[GRIZZLY]

Eric I'm ashamed of you-WHAT A LOAD OF OLD TOSH.

[Jon]

It probably says all you need to know about Gloria that she collects memorabilia of Scott of the Antarctic and Margaret Thatcher.
Yes says enough, goes down a treat at the daily mail that. Scott was no Shackleton nor was he a Amundsen, and Margret Thatcher - I would not even bother the list is so long.

Perhaps we could encourage Mrs. T and the arms dealing members of her family to do the decent thing and emulate captain Oates.

Sorry in advance Eric if she is one of your heroes but you did bring the Daily Mail into the equation!!
You will be telling me next that Jeremy Clarkson has a good sense of humour.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Grizzly
Nice to hear from you! No two folk see the world in the same way. We all have our agendas and we are, all of us flawed. Even Gavin and I!
Gloria is in my opinion dong a marvellous PR job for the bee and doing good honest business from their products. Who knows she may have Varroa tolerant bees as well! The “Mail” is not my paper – I read the “Scots Independent” and live for the day! Despite our differing views on this subject I hope we may still remain friends.
I have done the unforgiveable and pasted stuff – sorry Gav!
Gloria does appear to have done her homework after all! See under!
Yours in the Craft
Eric
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Salient quotes:
With a degree in botany, zoology and genetics from Leicester University, Gloria initially went into teaching, before moving on to the Ministry of Agriculture.
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With her scientific background Gloria takes none of this at face value, digging deep for the research to back up what she sees for herself.
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Recently, Gloria was inducted into the City of London livery company the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers, one of only a handful of women to be admitted.
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ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured.
http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthursto...dcinnamon.html
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Multiple Sclerosis
Ctiflex Plus with active manuka honey, bee venom and ginger may be a natural multiple sclerosis treatment many people are looking for. Actiflex plus seems to help relieve multiple sclerosis symptoms and pain to help increase movement and flexibility with less or no pain.
http://www.manukahoneyusa.com/multiple-sclerosis.htm
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There’s a neurotransmitter in honey called acetylcholine,
genome.cshlp.org
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AK Jones, V Raymond-Delpech, SH Thany, M Gauthier, DB Sattelle
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) mediate fast cholinergic synaptic transmission and play roles in many cognitive processes. They are under intense research as potential targets of drugs used to treat neurodegenerative diseases and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. Invertebrate nAChRs are targets of anthelmintics as well as a major group of insecticides, the neonicotinoids. The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is one of the most beneficial insects worldwide, playing an important role in crop pollination, and is also a valuable model system for studies on social interaction, sensory processing, learning, and memory. We have used the A. mellifera genome information to characterize the complete honey bee nAChR gene family. Comparison with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae shows that the honey bee possesses the largest family of insect nAChR subunits to date (11 members). As with Drosophila and Anopheles, alternative splicing of conserved exons increases receptor diversity. Also, we show that in one honey bee nAChR subunit, six adenosine residues are targeted for RNA A-to-I editing, two of which are evolutionarily conserved in Drosophila melanogaster and Heliothis virescens orthologs, and that the extent of editing increases as the honey bee lifecycle progresses, serving to maximize receptor diversity at the adult stage. These findings on Apis mellifera enhance our understanding of nAChR functional genomics and provide a useful basis for the development of improved insecticides that spare a major beneficial insect species.

genome.cshlp.org
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Eczema and psoriasis
Current Research Publication: The new study investigated the use of a topical application of honey, olive oil, and beeswax for the treatment of eczema and psoriasis. Twenty-one people with eczema and 18 people with psoriasis took part in the trial. Eleven of the participants with eczema and ten of those with psoriasis were using topical steroid creams before the study.
All participants were assessed for signs of redness, scaling, skin thickening, itchiness, and oozing. Among the participants with eczema who had used no prior treatment, 80% had a significant improvement using the honey mixture; the amounts of itching, scaling, and oozing had the most profound improvements. Among those participants with eczema who had used a steroid cream prior to the study, a combination of the honey mixture and steroid cream led to substantial reductions in steroid doses in almost half of the participants. The honey mixture resulted in a marked improvement in 63% of the participants with psoriasis who had had no prior treatment. Steroid doses were reduced by up to 75% in half of the participants with psoriasis previously using steroid creams, with no deterioration in symptoms.

http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/honeyandeczema.html
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[Eric McArthur]

Hi Jon

I think we are both in deep trouble here - we are both in agreement! My favourite comedian is/was Victor Borg, the Swedish classical pianist turned funny man. in the late 50s. My all time favourite funny man is Tony Blair – when he tries to come across as sincere I have to roll about on the carpet! Mrs T I can hardly bear to mouth her name!

Regards
Eric

[GRIZZLY]

Eric its as daft as the myth that bee venom can cure/ease arthrytis.How many arthrytic beekeepers do you know?.My father was a life-long sufferer from psoriasis - the cure--- U.V. - i.e sunshine.No medications worked including honey et. etc. but sunshine would diminish the symptoms to the point of total dissappearance but it would always come back !! A study group of 21 is so small that even 100% success rate doesn't count as the next 21 people could reverse the findings.Sampling should be over as large a sample group as possible - possibly thousands before difinative results can be believed.As for your "siren",she seems to have flooded your brain with positive "endorfines" or whatever you call the things.I think you must have reached that "certain age" Eric.