A.V. Walters
They’re hounding me to renew the registration of my hives. In theory, it’s a good idea. If beekeepers register their bees–how many hives and their location–farmers will know to alert them when they plan to spray. That way, I can close up the hives when they are most at risk. They’re emailing me to tell me that if I don’t renew, my listing will be dropped. So, why do I resist?
First, registration hasn’t done anything for me. Doesn’t that sound selfish? In fact, I reached out to my neighboring farmer on my own–we formed an understanding, and now he gives me 24 hour notice of any chemical spraying or application. My idiot neighbors to the west apparently are uninformed about the registry–and they spray, willy-nilly, without notice. Their property looks like the lunar landscape–nothing grows there, not even the things that they plant. The crop registry didn’t help me with my notification success, nor with the failure.
I suppose my resistance is rooted in principle. I don’t want to participate, or be complicit, with the powers that are killing the bees. Late last year the registry unveiled a “new look,” complete with corporate sponsorship. The primary sponsor? Bayer. Wow.
For those who don’t know, Bayer is the primary player in the neonicitinoids game. Neonicitinoids (or “neonics”) are a class of insecticides that science shows are a primary killer of our honeybees. Of course, the industry denies it, in the time-honored tradition of corporate denial (think DDT, Big Tobacco, Big Oil and Climate Change, or, soon at a theater near you, Fukushima!) The usual game plan is to float a disinformation campaign and to deny as long as possible, only to quietly acquiesce to the underlying science AFTER using influence to secure liability protection.) I don’t want my participation in such a program to provide “cover” to corporate malfeasance.
Bayer sponsoring a Bee Registry is like General Mills giving out free wildflower seeds to help the bees. (Oops, that’s a real thing, too!) Is it cynical greenwashing or brilliant PR? I can’t tell, and I don’t want anything to do with it. Am I tilting at windmillls? Should I cowtow and collaborate? I cannot tell anymore.
tworockchronicles 
All good points A.V. It seems when it comes to farmers and landowners either they’re with you and supportive or don’t care a whit. Allow me to mention two more players in this game who are more responsive and who would rather your bees not be injured.
The first is licensed pesticide companies who are called to spray your neighbor’s property for whatever reason. Since they are licensed they really would not have the state regulatory agency contacted regarding their overspray, spraying on windy days, spraying blooms, or other inappropriate application methods prohibited by pesticide labels. If for no other reason than to avoid this headache they tend to listen to neighbors who speak up. And by speak up I don’t mean talking to the fellow doing the spraying – get on the phone to their office and ask to speak to the supervisor or owner and ask why they did not check the registry.
The other player that listens is county, city, and town vector control departments. Yeah, they have made mistakes like they did last year with the Zika spraying here in SC but by and large they’d rather not get placed on the hot seat for sloppy work. Here is SC when mosquito season starts some municipalities resort to aerial spraying as well as via truck. All of our local municipalities welcome not creating a situation whereby they are faced with a dozen school children dressed as honey bees along with the local news media at the next county council meeting. Really, that sort of publicity (or the possibility of it) is a strong motivator to pay close attention to citizens that have taken steps to register and protect their bee hives.
That’s only my two cents worth. Cheers and thanks for the post!
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We register our bees by computer every year. It is advocated by the different bee groups as it is a way of monitoring losses and also the more bees kept in France the more aid that would come from Europe (that is the theory). I have never heard about using the register by farmers over here. I think it generally felt that bees are very frequently not registered here. I am for registration as it could prove important in disease control. Amelia
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While I am generally in favor of registration–our registration program has taken a turn to the dark side. I will not participate in a program that walks, hand-in-hand, with corporate interests in bee death. I don’t want to provide them with information, and I don’t want to provide them with green-washing cover. I polled my bee group and found a general agreement on my position. All of those who previously advocated registration have withdrawn from the program since the unveiling of the “Bayer partnership.”
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I’m generally suspicious of registration programs too. We’ve never been asked to register our bees, but we were hounded for years about registering our goats. This was in the early stages of NAIS, before public outcry killed it. But the industry sort of got their way anyway (with goats at least). Even though the registration was made “voluntary” rather than mandatory, any goats sold at auctions or consignment sales have to have the tags. Still much better than their initial plan.
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Hi AV,
From someone who knows next to nothing about xommercial bee keeping , can you explain to me the difference in your bee population or behaviour that you notice on days when you know that spray has come on to your property ?
I am very interested in sust. Ag and like learning from actual farmers ( like yourself ) and not secondhand info
Cheers
Nathan
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I’m hardly a farmer–more of a struggling hobbyist beekeeper. Unfortunately I cannot report on bee behavior when there’s spraying, because my neighboring farmer alerts me, and I keep them in. Keeping them locked in the hive makes them a tad testy, but I have no intention of changing the drill, just to see behavioral changes from poisoning!
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Thanks AV
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