hummingberd
04-16-2007, 10:10 AM
Ok, so I went to Google today, typed in the word "bee" and a bunch of websites came up, including this little bugger!!!
http://greensmiths.com/bees.htm
If you scroll down a bit you'll find the little section recommending to people that they quickly kill a colony that has taken up residence in their walls.
Who do these people think they are anyway? As I sat here in my chair pondering who on earth would write up such a destructive bit of information, I realized that's one of the downsides of the internet. Any one posing as a knowlegeable, educated scholar can type up an "official" looking website and start spouting off information to the public. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who find this website and heed the information. Perhaps that is a part of why so many bee colonies have disappeared. LOTS and LOTS of misinformation!!!
So, I politely composed an email included below. I encourage all of you who read this post to write up your own email to these lovely folks or even feel free to cut and paste my email. You can use parts of it, all of it, or even add on to it! We NEED to educate these people!
Hello-
I am a honey beekeeper located in Maine. I was reading through your information, most of which I like. I am hoping that you might be willing to update your webpage to include information on colony extraction services. Local beekeepers are often more than willing to do swarm removal for a small fee. There should be a list of local beekeepers in any given area willing to do this. You can get this list from local bee clubs, your state bee inspector, or contact your agricultural extension for more information if those don't work. Allowing a beekeeper to extract the colony is beneficial to both the property owner, the honey bee and the beekeeper. Everyone benefits. The property owner is able to humanely relocate the insects, the bees get a new home, and the beekeeper gets a new colony of bees! Everyone's happy.
I think we can all agree that honey bees are beneficial insects. In light of the decreasing population of honey bee colonies and with the losses experienced by beekeepers from Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, it would be socially and agriculturally irresponsible for us to encourage anyone to kill a colony of honey bees. Especially a feral colony, which has survived through strong biology, and is the likely culprit which has built it's home in the walls of a house. I know LOTS of very educated beekeepers who would be willing to offer information you might need to properly educated people on how to deal with the extraction of bees from their home. This would be a great alternative to just destroying the colony. Thanks so much for your time and consideration of this matter.
If you scroll all the way to the end there is a link to their email address. Let's band together on this one! Thanks for your help guys :)
http://greensmiths.com/bees.htm
If you scroll down a bit you'll find the little section recommending to people that they quickly kill a colony that has taken up residence in their walls.
Who do these people think they are anyway? As I sat here in my chair pondering who on earth would write up such a destructive bit of information, I realized that's one of the downsides of the internet. Any one posing as a knowlegeable, educated scholar can type up an "official" looking website and start spouting off information to the public. And I'm sure there are plenty of people who find this website and heed the information. Perhaps that is a part of why so many bee colonies have disappeared. LOTS and LOTS of misinformation!!!
So, I politely composed an email included below. I encourage all of you who read this post to write up your own email to these lovely folks or even feel free to cut and paste my email. You can use parts of it, all of it, or even add on to it! We NEED to educate these people!
Hello-
I am a honey beekeeper located in Maine. I was reading through your information, most of which I like. I am hoping that you might be willing to update your webpage to include information on colony extraction services. Local beekeepers are often more than willing to do swarm removal for a small fee. There should be a list of local beekeepers in any given area willing to do this. You can get this list from local bee clubs, your state bee inspector, or contact your agricultural extension for more information if those don't work. Allowing a beekeeper to extract the colony is beneficial to both the property owner, the honey bee and the beekeeper. Everyone benefits. The property owner is able to humanely relocate the insects, the bees get a new home, and the beekeeper gets a new colony of bees! Everyone's happy.
I think we can all agree that honey bees are beneficial insects. In light of the decreasing population of honey bee colonies and with the losses experienced by beekeepers from Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD, it would be socially and agriculturally irresponsible for us to encourage anyone to kill a colony of honey bees. Especially a feral colony, which has survived through strong biology, and is the likely culprit which has built it's home in the walls of a house. I know LOTS of very educated beekeepers who would be willing to offer information you might need to properly educated people on how to deal with the extraction of bees from their home. This would be a great alternative to just destroying the colony. Thanks so much for your time and consideration of this matter.
If you scroll all the way to the end there is a link to their email address. Let's band together on this one! Thanks for your help guys :)