Jon, I really think you shouldn't use that term so much, remember what I explained in strategy number 2.Originally Posted by Jon
The term 'conspiracy theory' is very often used to sideline a topic that would be very embarrassing to officials if it was properly investigated.
Anyway, it would be very naive to think what I hinted at doesn't go on on a daily basis in all sorts of areas of life, the pesticide corprorations are no saints either.
Last edited by Stromnessbees; 08-05-2012 at 10:52 AM.
Hi Doris. If you make an allegation like that you should provide evidence.
I always point out conspiracy theories by yourself or anyone else. They are invariably complete nonsense.
I had many a run in with a well known internet poster who preaches good husbandry and non treatment. He could fit 5 different conspiracies into a single post in an effortless style.
It is nothing to do with derailing discussion. It is about raising the bar with regard to the quality of the discussion.
If unsubstantiated gossip or conspiracy is acceptable there is no point in having the debate. It is the equivalent of pub talk.
The debate has to be based on evidence.
You can get all the conspiracy you want on Biobees.com.
In the shills thread you started there, someone suggested that Bayer was funding the Scottish bee forum and Uncle Phil Chandler inferred that he was banned from this forum. Counting your risible shills allegation, that is 3 separate conspiracy theories on a thread of only 5 posts.
That's what I call value for money, a 60% hit rate per thread.
If you want relentless conspiracy theory, biobees in out in front by a country mile.
I believe this thread was about phorid flies and press coverage of the aforementioned.
Last edited by Jon; 08-05-2012 at 11:10 AM.
To get back to phorid flies I had a single colony that emerged from winter with all dead bees in it. My only other loss was a Marie Celeste so I don't know what hapened to that one.
The dead bee one had loads of bees on the floor, some heads down in cells and others in a cluster on a frame. The clustered bees had decomposed into a sort of porridge. I could not explain their death so I took some samples from the floor ones to test for nosema. Within a few seconds I noticed maggots crawling out of the corpses. I guessed the ones that had turned to porridge had already been consumed by maggots. I have never encountered maggots in dead bees before and immediately thought about the phorid fly article which went round all the message boards some months ago after first appearing on Bee-L.
After thinking about it for I while I concluded that as the bees had been dead for at least 2 weeks (I had realised they were dead and had closed up the hive until I had time to investigate) the maggot eggs had probably been laid after the bees had died. Hence I don't think it was phorid flies which, to my knowledge, are unknown in Britain in any case.
Has anyone else had maggot-infested bees?
Rosie
Last edited by Rosie; 08-05-2012 at 12:16 PM. Reason: typos
I have seen the same Steve. A few years ago I had a colony with nosema which was sitting above a tyre I was using as a stand. A lot of the bees ended up below the hive inside the tyre and this was a complete porridge of bees and maggots.
I think those phorid flies need a warmer climate than ours so we are probably safe enough.
The big worry is importing bees with unknown viruses or more virulent strains of pathogens we already have.
Even with varroa, moving bees from one area to another could move pyrethroid resistant mites to a new area.
We now have cases of mite resistance in NI.
Importing bees is a bad idea with regard to disease risk.
We should have been able to keep Ireland varroa free but someone brought in varroa in 1998
Last edited by Jon; 08-05-2012 at 05:57 PM.
Now then guys, I've been called a shill, Graham White also tells me that I'm in the pay of Bayer, a smallish Glaswegian once swore at me and said the same thing but with Monsanto this time, I've even resisted being rude to a fellow criticising the humour on here ..... and I can shrug all that off. But you'd better be really careful if you are going to use the word porridge inappropriately!
That's right Gavin, Rosie has put me right off it!
But it's sad that you and Jon swallowed the fly story wholeheartedly without all the critical analysis that you put against every pesticide study ever conducted. This would have been your opportunity to shout 'bad science' or rather 'bad reporting'.
I'm hoping we'll see your critical thinking applied more widely in future.
Last edited by Stromnessbees; 08-05-2012 at 12:40 PM.
Porridge is the work of the devil. An educated man eats potatoes for breakfast.
There was an old woman who swallowed a fly.
I don't know why she swallowed that fly.
I haven't swallowed any myself.
The lesson from the Phorid fly story is that the press will sensationalize any story to do with bees.
They are discussing a Forbes article on bee decline on Bee-L at the moment, complete rubbish, and Forbes is not considered to be a tabloid.
Hope it wasn't Trog, but I suspect I know who you are talking about!a smallish Glaswegian once swore at me
The Media is an appalling source for information at the moment. What isn't down right sensationalist is often just plain wrong or confused from the start. Country File's sections the other day, linked here in another thread, I think are a case in point and generally they seem to be pretty good. They talk about bees, at times, seemingly as one homogeneous "lump". Are they referring to Bumbles, solitary bees, honey bees, all of them? At times they seem to be referring to one while showing pictures of another.
As for the media generally being an impartial observer of "the science" is MMR really that long ago?
To mention the N word again, it's interesting how many articles continually refer to them as "new"
It wisnae me that swore at him! I'm no smallish.
Jon, what's wrong with porridge far more healthy than a fried tattie scone.
I think we should be OK from the Phorid fly at the moment, unless it likes the cold wet coast of Scotland
I was thinking of a wee man worried about inbreeding and sugar bags!
You can't beat a tasty fried slice of potato.
I'd better be careful. You could get banned from a Scottish forum for pointing out the devilish nature of porridge.
Don't want to end up in the sin bin with Doris!
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