Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowanian
The guys I'm learning from have had mixed results. One of them lost 4-5 hives at his house this winter but the rest are good in other locations. I think he is blaming the adjacent farm spraying insecticide late in the season.
I'm not a notable hippy but I do believe the bee death is a real thing. Pollinators are vital and if more guys like me try to raise a few hives it will help.
It surely won't hurt my orchard either.
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Bee numbers are definitely down. But there is a lot of factors. At gets blamed for a shitton of it but objectively nothing has changed in at to promote large scale bee death. But a neighbor spraying definitely could have nuked your local colony.
But the whole talc/seed treatment thing is a joke. Vacuum planters have been on the market forever as has seed treatment. In terms of applied insecticides, the total volume of insecticides applied is minuscule since BT corn was commercially available.
But I'd talk to your neighbors. See if you can get a courtesy call when he is flying insecticide on.