Spraying Soybeans

[lars1322]

I have 2 hives about 30 yards off of a soybean field. I got a message today saying that they are going to be spraying the field tomorrow for aphids. I don't know what they are spraying but they did say that the label says that it will kill bees in the field but they are not supposed to carry residual back to the hive. They are planning on spraying late evening/night to minimize the amount of bees in the field. Short of moving the hives is their anything else any of you would recommend. I can cover the hives with a wet sheet but the bees should be in for the night at this point anyways unless I should try to keep them in for longer than a day but with temps in the 90s this might cause other issues. I believe that the soybean bloom should be over by now in MN so I don't think that there will be many bees in the bean field. There are several other bean fields in the area and I don't know if any of them have been sprayed yet but I haven't noticed large amounts of dead bees in front of either hive. Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.

-Nate

[Beeslave]

At least they were nice enough to contact you. Yesterday I noticed my neighbor with his spray rig in the bean field. I asked him if he was spraying round-up(I knew he wasn't) and he got a really dumb look on his face and stuttered out the word "fungicide"( he's usually a good speaker). I did some calling around and there is aphid problems here too and the farmers are applying LORSBAN. Maybe my neighbor was applying fungicide but I don't think so.

Back to your question- If you can, move the bees elsewhere. If you can't move them just cross your fingers and hope for the best. As hot as it is going to be the last thing you want to do is cover them(IMHO).

[Beeslave]

I just reread your post and seen the 30 yds. Move them now!

[Countryboy]

The only fungicide we put on soybeans was Apronmaxx, and it is applied to the seed before planting. I know other farmers who buy their bean seed already pretreated with fungicide. Now that I think about it, we might have sprayed Bravo a couple times.

Tacking screen over the entrances closes up hives while still giving them some ventilation. A feeder with water will be good for cooling the hive though.

[Beekeeper's hubby]

When we sprayed our soya with Lambda-Cyhalothrin <Warrior> pyrethroid insecticide and Pyraclostrobin <Headline> fungicide in a tank mix with the pyrethroid rate at 2oz/acre. When we sprayed the beans were postbloom. We have 4 hives within 30 feet of that field and had no apparent problems at all. There was also no wind or inversion whatsoever when spraying. I do think had the beans been blooming the outcome could have been catastrophic.

[Beekeeper's hubby]

Oops I mean the beans were prebloom by about a week

[lars1322]

I did talk with them later on today and I believe that they are spraying Cyhalothrin as well. The beans are post bloom and the wind tomorrow should be light and blowing from the bees to the beans so that is encouraging.

[Brandy]

I'm also in an area where there are many corn fields being sprayed. After a bee kill a couple years ago they now know I'm in the area and call the afternoon before they spray. They have since scheduled all their noxious sprays to very early morning. I have all the hives on SBB's and close the entrance's with wet towel strips. Usually about 1-2-3 hours later they call with the all clear. So far it's been working. They also have been calling to let me know whether it's fungicide or Oberon (sp?) since they know when I hear the plane I will be calling. Good luck.

[Ian]

its hard to move bee hives around to avoid farmer spraying, mostly because if one is spraying, most of them are also.

Good for him to advise you of his intentions. And also its good his treatment is during the evening. That good will gesture is what we ask for, and when we get it from the farmers, we have to express our gratitude.

One week ago I had a farmer spray a sunflower field for worms, crop in full bloom. The spraying company contacted me and we worked out what needed to be done to prevent bee damage. The farmer was easy to get along with, and we had agreed on spraying the field dust or dawn, and allow a few hundred feet of grace from my beeyard. I went back a few days later and found no visible bee damage.

Communication is the key to preventing bee damages from insecticide spraying. Most of the time the farmer doesn't want to hurt what we are doing, we also cant prevent them from protecting their crop.