Subject: Re: ESSENTIAL OILS report

From: [email-masked] (J. Edwards)
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 20:05:52 LOCAL

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur) writes:
>From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
>Subject: ESSENTIAL OILS report
>Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 20:58:00 GMT

>or country), and therefore any treatments are not covered by any
>agricultural regulation. The Pure Food & Drug people are should only
>interested in products that may contaminate the honey with deleterious
>materials. If the materials here described are used according to the
>directions there should be no reason for concern

But ANDY - - other "natural " ingredients could be carbon monoxide, cyanide, 
digitalis extract, the wrong mushrooms, etc. ................
   Couldn't we all try to live up to honey's potential and reputation ? ;D
        John

---

From: Jon Camp <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 1996 01:27:32 GMT

You are absolutely right, in a perfect world we wouldn't need any 
medications, but we have brought on this problem(s) with 
honeybees ourselves.  It would be nice if there were still enough 
research labs open with enough funds to try out some of the 
"natural" extracts found in the food industry under controlled 
conditions so we good get dowon to the business of bringing our 
colony populations up to snuff.  If I had a nickel for every 
chemical or home remedy I've heard of in the past two years that 
claims to knock down the varroa or trachael mite pop. in our 
colonies, I'd be able to retire at the ripe old age of 44.  Quite 
honestly, I wish every one of them worked.  Then we would at 
least have an alternative to Apistan.  I've been keeping bees for 
25 years, commercially for 10.  This is the first time in ten 
years I've had less than 100 colonies to my name, when spring 
rolled around.  The lack of effectiveness of the control agents 
legally available to us, combined with a winter in the northeast 
the likes of which hasan't been seen in some time, spelled 
economic ruin for a lot of small commercial beekeepers like 
myself.  Add to that fact that most of the southern bee breeders 
were two to fours weeks behind this spring, and you have a lot of 
lost pollination contracts on your hands.  I ordered replacement 
packages, and then finally passed them on to a fellow beekeeper 
that could utilize them for later pollination.  The packagee 
arrived all right; five days after I pulled my colonies out of 
the pollination I had ordered them for.

It seems that I didn't have enough influence(ie $$$) with the 
Georgia breeder to get them delivered on time.  He continued to 
fill mail orders and pickup orders but seemed to find it 
necessary to put off a group of us in the Northeast. (the 
exception being upstate NY.)  Such is life.  But I can guarrantee 
you that there are a few beekeepers in New England that won't 
forget the lack of consideration we were shown.

But all the pissing and moaning in the workd won't solve the 
problems at hand, varroa and trachael mites and the secondary 
symptoms they cause in our honeybees.  Three cheers for the 
ingeneuity (or is it desperation) of those who are willing to 
take the time to try alternative mite control methods.  As long 
as we don't expect the honey buying public to be the guinea pigs 
and unwitting purchasers of adulterated honey, there shouldn't be 
any problems.  But I for one wouldn't feel comfortable selling 
honey that might not quite be table ready if it were exposed to a 
product that might compromise the health of some individuals.
If such a treatment product already held a food safe label in 
certain quantities, I would be quite upset if the Feds dragged 
their collective feet in passing the use of such a product for 
mite control when we are so desperate for alternative treatments. 
That's my .02 worth.

                       JC in NH