Beekeepers fear sting of imported Australian hives

By GARANCE BURKE (Associated Press Writer)


ATWATER, California - Beekeepers who are battling a mysterious ailment that led to the disappearance of millions of honeybees now fear the sting of imported Australian bees that they worry could outcompete their hives and might carry a deadly parasite unseen in the United States.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has allowed shipments of Australian bees to resume despite concerns by some of its own scientists.

Australia had been airfreighting the insects across the Pacific for four years to replace hives devastated by the perplexing colony collapse disorder. But six weeks ago the Australian government abruptly stopped the shipments, saying it could no longer be certain the country was free of a smaller, aggressive bee that has infested areas near the Great Barrier Reef, U.S. officials said.

Early this month, the USDA decided to permit the bee shipments to resume with some precautions, and the first planeloads arrived in San Francisco last Monday.

Beekeeper Ken Haff of Mandan, North Dakota, says he fears the foreign hives could kill off his apiary.

"We've got enough problems with our own bee diseases that we don't know how to treat, and they open the border to a whole new species that could carry God knows what," said Haff, a vice president of the American Honey Producers Association. "That's a total slap in the face for us."

Shad Sullivan, a bee wholesaler in California's Central Valley, said that in the four years he has imported bees from Australia, he has found that the hearty imports outlive domestic bees that have been weakened by pesticides, pests and diseases.

"If the bees were truly carrying something that bad, I would have been the first to get it," Sullivan said as a thick cloud of the buzzing insects flew overhead. "I just haven't seen those kinds of devastation."

Domestic honeybees feed on most flowering plants, and are vital pollinators for many food crops.

However, domestic bee stocks have been waning since 2004, when scientists first got reports of the puzzling illness that has claimed up to 90 percent of commercial hives and has been labeled colony collapse disorder.

That's also the year the USDA allowed imports of Australian hives, and scientists have been investigating whether Australia was a source of a virus tied to the bee die-off.

Entomologists also fear that the aggressive bee species found near Australia's Great Barrier Reef could carry a deadly mite, said Jeff Pettis, the USDA's top bee scientist.

"This could be a threat worldwide, because if those bees are moving around the chances are this mite would move with it," Pettis said. "We just don't need another species causing problems."

The Australian government has adopted emergency controls to quarantine and destroy the aggressive bees and has never detected that mite, according to materials provided by Chelsey Martin, counselor for public affairs at the Australian Embassy in Washington.

U.S. agriculture officials say they also are taking precautions.

Agricultural officials started sampling Australian bees last week after they were released in the Central Valley.

"Bees from Australia make great sense," said Wayne Wehling, a senior entomologist in the USDA's permit unit. "But we certainly don't want to bring any economic impacts onto our honeybees that we don't already have or introduce any new pests or disease."

Government officials said they do not know how many Australian bees have been imported, but hive importer Sullivan estimates that he has sold 110,000 hives since 2005.

On Wednesday, a USDA inspector in a protective suit collected samples of bees at Sullivan's operation.

"Hopefully this will ease the minds of people who have their own hives here," said inspector John Iniguez. "We're trusting Australia that they're clean. Now we just want to confirm that."

Tips for a Successful Beekeeping Startup Business

If there's one insect in the world that does so much for so little, it's the bee. Bees are very useful for many products and by-products and as such, are ideal for a business. If you're looking to start a beekeeping business, here are some important information you can use for your startup:

Learn about beekeeping.
Never go into a business you don't understand. Beekeeping needs a few specialized skills and knowledge, particularly because you will be dealing with a live source of your products. You should, for example, know how bee containers are designed for maximum use and production. You should also be able to know what harvesting entails, what types of products you can expect and how to process these products.

Most importantly, you should learn how to handle bees. You need to understand their nature, how they behave, what they like, how they thrive and how to protect them.

Scout for a location.
Location is crucial to the success of your beekeeping startup business. Ideal locations should be shady (have sufficient trees and shrubs with nearby flower beds or fields) and flat. In some areas, beekeeping is considered illegal. It's important to get in touch with a local agency to find out if the area you want to build your business in is legally zoned.

If you want to look for locations that allow beehives, check with a beekeeping organization in your area or a nationally-affiliated group. They can guide you about locations that you can consider. When it comes to the area, you can buy or rent.

Find a bee supplier.
Bees are sold by container. Containers weigh around 1 kilogram to 2 kilograms. A one-kilogram container will contain around 9,000 bees. Try to purchase your bees during the early months of the year. By March or April, your supplier should be able to ship them out to you, most likely through postal service. You'll probably have to pick up the bees yourself.

Maintain a number of colonies.
The number of colonies you have will depend on how many of you will be taking care of the bees. For every 500 to 1000 bee colonies, you'll need one beekeeper who has sufficient knowledge about the operation. If you want more bee colonies, make sure you have trained beekeepers working for you.

Buy the right supplies.
Purchase containers where the queen bees will be kept, along with the frame where the hive will be housed. If you know how to handle these bees carefully, you should have no problems regarding their transport and transfer. Some equipment you will need include:

- hives or wooden frames
- fume boards
- feeders
- queen excluders
- screens
- vehicles for transport
- brush
- smoker
- coveralls (preferably white), gloves and hat with veil

The main product from a beekeeping business is honey. If you're a startup, this is probably the most important thing you must know how to handle other than the bees themselves. You'll need equipment for extraction and processing, which will include the extractor, some sieves and a settling tank.

Market.
If you're starting a beekeeping business, you'll be glad to know that the main product – which is honey – has excellent storage qualities. It doesn’t spoil easily and is a very versatile product to process and sell. It also has a high demand, provided, of course that you know how and where to market it.

Given a good location, sufficient knowledge and good management practices, there's no reason why your beekeeping startup business shouldn't succeed.

Chemtrails and CCD

Chemtrails may also be one of the primary contributory factors in the collapse of honey bee colonies worldwide. Albert Einstein clearly knew the importance of the honey bee when he said: "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
There are currently three main hypothesis for the purpose of chemical spraying in the skies: weather modification, population control, and testing of biological agents on the general populace.



This 5-minute video serves only as an introduction to the phenomenon of chemtrails. I encourage you to research this subject in more detail to gain a fuller picture of what chemtrails contain, their impact on the environment, and the history of aerial spraying that has taken place in many countries. A good place to start your research is: http://www.CuttingThroughTheMatrix.com