Well, if you haven't seen it yet, the CAPA report about the 2012/2013 winter losses can be found at:
http://capabees.org/2013/06/24/capa-statement-on-honey-bees-losses-in-canada-2011/
The encouraging part of the report is that, I believe, for the first time the acute and chronic pesticide poisoning is cited by a lot of beekeepers as one of the reasons for the winter losses, and finally the nonsense that it is all because of varroa is being pushed in the background. I wouldn't put much money on the claim of Nosema (at least N. apis) being a too serious bee pathogen, as from my experience the disease kicks in due to the presence of some stress factors (inadequate food, high humidity, weakened bees due to high varroa infestation of the wintering bees, pesticides, etc.), so it is rather there just to finish off the bees, and not to be the main cause of the loss. If you google "neonicotinoids + nosema", you'll find some good reading on the topic and inspiration to start thinking out of the box (and maybe a possibility of what is really going on in cases when Nosema is "the major reason for colony mortality"). Another reason for the losses,..."poor queens",...well,...not much can be expected from the mass-produced, selected-for-nothing, queens of a size of a worker bee that come from the God-knows-where to winter in Canada. I must say that some of the queens produced in Quebec that I saw were not much bigger than those imports :(
Now, back to the pesticides,...Health Canada has just published a "Notice of intent - Action to Protect Bees from Exposure to Neonicotinoid Pesticides" at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pest/part/consultations/_noi2013-01/noi2013-01-eng.php. Nice, but not nearly enough! It deals only with the acute (and really sporadic) poisoning at the seed planting time, and does not address at all the chronic effect of neonicotinoid exposure, which is in my humble opinion the main problem with these pesticides. The "beauty" in dealing with the chronic poisoning is that not many beekeepers are aware of it's possibility, and if I may return to the "Statement of honey bee losses" above, most of the things that the beekeepers reported as being the reasons for the bee mortality (poor queens, weak colonies in fall, nosemosis, even varroa infestation) may had actually been the result of the underlying chronic neonicotinoid poisoning. But who is to blame them,...with the "beekeeping experts" we have (and also the pesticide producers) singing the same old (varroa) song, the beekeepers are powerless.
Near the end of the "Notice" is an interesting sentence: "Health Canada's PMRA applies a science-based approach to regulate pesticides. We continue to review new scientific information as it becomes available...". Well, review this HC-PMRA: “In situ replication of honey bee colony collapse disorder. Bulletin of Insectology, 65: 99-106."
The article nicely indicates the chronology of the colony loss due to the sub-lethal (chronic) neonicotinoid poisoning, and pretty much reflects to the details the observations of the colony losses at the McGill Apicultural Association apiary.
http://capabees.org/2013/06/24/capa-statement-on-honey-bees-losses-in-canada-2011/
The encouraging part of the report is that, I believe, for the first time the acute and chronic pesticide poisoning is cited by a lot of beekeepers as one of the reasons for the winter losses, and finally the nonsense that it is all because of varroa is being pushed in the background. I wouldn't put much money on the claim of Nosema (at least N. apis) being a too serious bee pathogen, as from my experience the disease kicks in due to the presence of some stress factors (inadequate food, high humidity, weakened bees due to high varroa infestation of the wintering bees, pesticides, etc.), so it is rather there just to finish off the bees, and not to be the main cause of the loss. If you google "neonicotinoids + nosema", you'll find some good reading on the topic and inspiration to start thinking out of the box (and maybe a possibility of what is really going on in cases when Nosema is "the major reason for colony mortality"). Another reason for the losses,..."poor queens",...well,...not much can be expected from the mass-produced, selected-for-nothing, queens of a size of a worker bee that come from the God-knows-where to winter in Canada. I must say that some of the queens produced in Quebec that I saw were not much bigger than those imports :(
Now, back to the pesticides,...Health Canada has just published a "Notice of intent - Action to Protect Bees from Exposure to Neonicotinoid Pesticides" at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/pest/part/consultations/_noi2013-01/noi2013-01-eng.php. Nice, but not nearly enough! It deals only with the acute (and really sporadic) poisoning at the seed planting time, and does not address at all the chronic effect of neonicotinoid exposure, which is in my humble opinion the main problem with these pesticides. The "beauty" in dealing with the chronic poisoning is that not many beekeepers are aware of it's possibility, and if I may return to the "Statement of honey bee losses" above, most of the things that the beekeepers reported as being the reasons for the bee mortality (poor queens, weak colonies in fall, nosemosis, even varroa infestation) may had actually been the result of the underlying chronic neonicotinoid poisoning. But who is to blame them,...with the "beekeeping experts" we have (and also the pesticide producers) singing the same old (varroa) song, the beekeepers are powerless.
Near the end of the "Notice" is an interesting sentence: "Health Canada's PMRA applies a science-based approach to regulate pesticides. We continue to review new scientific information as it becomes available...". Well, review this HC-PMRA: “In situ replication of honey bee colony collapse disorder. Bulletin of Insectology, 65: 99-106."
The article nicely indicates the chronology of the colony loss due to the sub-lethal (chronic) neonicotinoid poisoning, and pretty much reflects to the details the observations of the colony losses at the McGill Apicultural Association apiary.
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