Bee Watch

[T Hectares]

I was alarmed to receive this letter today, I wonder how many of you have also received it??
I found it alarming and containing non proven claims presented as fact and a clear sign of where anti direction will be focussed next

I would like to send a reply, would any of you more learned members have any useful information to help counter the claims.

I have an idea of the matters I would like to cover in my response but am grateful for any additional views...

Please no "fudge them" type replys, I'd like to keep this scientific and factual thanks and present myself as a farmer reducing pesticide usage, increasing bio diversity and helping wildlife...

 

[Adeptandy]

Thought it was neonic’s that was the reason they got lost going home ?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

I had a discussion with a neighbour who keeps Bees when I was spraying nettles in a field next to her and she was very concerned as she had lost half of her Hives over the winter and was very concerned that it was nasty farmers spraying any chemical.
I tried to point out that the chemical I was using was very specific and at present the nettles were not flowering so bees were unlikely to settle on them.
She is a Doctor and has a good understanding of chemistry and admitted that the banning of Nenicotinoids may have actually had a negative effect on Bee survival as farmers were using more Pyrethroid based chemicals which are fatal to Bees.
She did not mention Glyphosphate as any cause and within at least 4 miles of her hives there would not have been any used anyway.

It was a long winter for bees as there has been virtually no flowers in all the wet.

 

[melted welly]

The fact it pee'd with rain for the duration had no effect?

 

[ajcc]

Are there many bees foraging an osr or cereal field in July? Looks like classic 2 plus 2 equals 5.
They appear/are confused between possible chemical effect with neonics supposedly messing up insect navigation and glyphosphate damaging bee gut bacteria.
If you spent £1000 on testing you’d think they would try to understand/interprete implications behind results.

 

[HarryB97]

I had the same letter and on the back it claims Glyphosate is a Pesticide We have a bee keeper on the farm who has over 200 hives and has been here for decades. Not once has he ever mentioned or complained about Glyphosate or Neonics etc and loosing hives. He just misses OSR for the early flowering before beans and bramble etc get going.

 

[Goweresque]

The letter makes no sense. Pre-harvest desiccation would be taking place well before autumn, when some time in mid to late July/early August? At that point there's a shed load of other stuff bees would be on. I've never seen bees on a standing crop of wheat, barley or OSR thats weeks from harvest. What would they be there for, there's no flower or nectar to attract them? Plus the main flow honey is usually taken off in August, which means that the autumn honey would be too late to include any glyphosate sprayed onto crops pre-combining. If there was any it would be in the earlier stuff.

Anyway a good beekeeper gives the bees fondant to fill their hives up with before winter comes, as late honey is often made from ivy nectar, which granulates badly in the hive and requires a lot of water for the bees to use it. If they can't get out to water they end up starving despite a hive full of honey.

 

[topground]

Despite a wet winter all of the 10 Honey bee colonies I now look after have come through the winter with varying degrees of strength despite limited feeding and no preventative medication for varoa. OSR wheat and barley all grown within foraging range. No special precautions taken in regard to the arable cycle.

 

[GeorgeK]

This guy Filipe is bee.watch, photo from the FB page. He wants you to use his pesticide notification app, only one small catch it's £30/year for the privilege. He also sells miracle products that make hives invulnerable to wasps from just £15.99. He will even carry out hive inspections (with written report) for £45 per hour. Yes he's spreading misinformation to line his own pockets
https://www.bee.watch/upstairs-downstairs-kit/#pg-3929-0

 

[Exfarmer]

First question for this group.
How many Varroa mites are present in your hives? What are your control measures for Varroa?
second ,do you import queens for your apaiary, do you check their health and can you state the current health status of your hives?
Third , can you guarantee your bees do not carry chronic bee paralysis virus. Can you confirm your bees do not present a threat to the local bee population
there are a nasty little group of people trying to blame issues which have been ongoing in bee keeping, for nearly 60 years on modern farming practices.

 

[onesiedale]

I was alarmed to receive this letter today, I wonder how many of you have also received it??
I found it alarming and containing non proven claims presented as fact and a clear sign of where anti direction will be focussed nextView attachment 875732

I would like to send a reply, would any of you more learned members have any useful information to help counter the claims.

I have an idea of the matters I would like to cover in my response but am grateful for any additional views...

Please no "fudge them" type replys, I'd like to keep this scientific and factual thanks and present myself as a farmer reducing pesticide usage, increasing bio diversity and helping wildlife...

@Rob Garrett

 

[yellow belly]

i have a bee farmer who as 200 to 400 hives half on my farm
this year they overwintered well this year his honey production in April has been the highest ever even the bees on fruit pollination are adding honey

he finds that bees are often starving in early September and if he is not on the ball and feeds them early he can loose more colonies
many bee keepers start feeding too late
he moves some of the bees to the heather in the August to save feeding costs
last year his biggest problem was too many bees in hives and too much swarming
all the rape is desicated and I often spray beans with glyphosate
glyphosate has never been shown to affect bees despite all the efforts of the anti even in the lab

he supplies 4 Waitrose supermarkets as well as farmers markets and local shops

 

[traineefarmer]

Nothing but an aggressive marketing letter that should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Is this the app that is promoted by Nroso and RT? Looks like it should be avoided at all costs.

 

[Danllan]

This guy Filipe is bee.watch...

Just had a look at his 'site'. Some of it's obvious snake oil, manifest rubbish even to a layman - for example the varroa claim - and he looks to be running very close to the wind with some things, an expert beekeeper may be able to dismiss them completely and then the local Police, Trading Standards and Bee Inspector would all probably be very interested.

I know the law in this regard pretty well, but am sadly ignorant about beekeeping, so can not write any more than that. (But he does haves an annoyingly large chin too... )

 

[renewablejohn]

I was alarmed to receive this letter today, I wonder how many of you have also received it??
I found it alarming and containing non proven claims presented as fact and a clear sign of where anti direction will be focussed nextView attachment 875732

I would like to send a reply, would any of you more learned members have any useful information to help counter the claims.

I have an idea of the matters I would like to cover in my response but am grateful for any additional views...

Please no "fudge them" type replys, I'd like to keep this scientific and factual thanks and present myself as a farmer reducing pesticide usage, increasing bio diversity and helping wildlife...

I would just recommend Beewatch needs to go on a training course on how to look after bees rather than blaming farmers. Do they not realise that some of us are not only farmers but also bee keepers as well. I would suggest he looks elsewhere for his losses as our major bee food source for winter use is the weed Himalayan Balsam which I have finally managed to stop the do gooders from spraying and in the process stopped them wiping out my hives on a regular basis.

 

[Farmer Fin]

Try British bee vets. Google or Facebook search. Vets who are interested in bees. I’m sure they will help with correct information for your reply.

 

[betternextyear]

I have 7 hives on my farm and they all survived the winter, 1 hive was a lot weaker than the rest but is now ok. Also its my best year ever for bumble bees. So not all bad news.

 

[Pan mixer]

I have 21 hives on mine, the apiarists have never complained about glyphosate, as far as i am aware we don't spray things when they are flowering anyway.

The main loss here over winter was some of the polystyrene hives floating off down the river during very damp days, I spotted them by drone and happy beekeepers came and repatriated them.

Bees die of a lot of things.

 

[A Trebor]

Nothing but an aggressive marketing letter that should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

Is this the app that is promoted by Nroso and RT? Looks like it should be avoided at all costs.

No think that’s Bee connected

 

[Adeptandy]

No think that’s Bee connected

What a pain that is as well