Worldwide Beekeeping
Worldwide Beekeeping Resource Library => Honey, Bee Forage; Nectar & Pollen Sources => Topic started by: apisbees on September 30, 2015, 01:59:03 pm
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Classic advertising
https://youtu.be/EqTpVpTL8jA
They make it sound so good
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Ah yes, from the folks who brought the world agent orange and napalm.
Funny thing is, many of the weeds they specifically mentioned, now laugh at 2-4-D.
Thanks for this Apis
Neill
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And the good news, we have been ingesting this stuff our entire adult lives.
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Did you notice how many of those WEEDS are our HONEY CROP?
A cousin of mine calls the fields of America's 'Industrial Agriculture' "DESERTS". Corn Deserts, Soybean Deserts...... Nothing growing other than the planted specie.
Yes! I'm complaining with my mouth full.
I still say that the status quo is unacceptable. Newer/better poisons will require a public demand.
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Most of the wild forage here has been displaced by crops. It always pains me to see the hedge rows and old fence rows dozed in and cleaned up to gain that extra couple acres here and there in with which to plant more corn or beans.
I used to hunt those valleys, hedge rows and fence lines. trees and weeds grew in them and the coons loved to run them.. That began to change, and as I went looking for places to turn my hounds loose, all i found were doze piles.. places those same raccoons could safely hide. if my dogs "treed" in one of those piles there was nothing for it but to pull them off and go elsewhere... The sad story for the bees, is that it also removes the blooming plants that grew in those places. In the last ten years I can only guess that better than four hundred acres within my bees foraging radius has been replaced with corn and beans. Every year I see more of those big piles of twisted up fence and tree trunks....
As for the spray? Its mostly round up, and it seems to have no effect on the fence rows at mine or my fathers land. I spend several days each summer running the bush hog along the fence lines to keep the trees cut down, the goldenrod, aster and other wild blooming plants bounce right back within a few days.
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The suburbs are taking their toll as well. The small wood lots and fallow fields of my youth has been replaced with Grass. The lawns in the area are reaching acreage size and the land owner feel compelled to mow along the road to the next lawn. I refuse to mow and my honeybees are the only thing that keeps me out of trouble with the neighbors.
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Jeannie and I are fortunate to live in an area without a lot of big agriculture. 2/3s of the county belongs to the federal government as National Forest of National park. That said, cattle prices have been high for a while and it seems everyone wants pasture for a cow/calf operation. They are clearing every inch of this rugged land and since the soils are thin and highly erodible a regular application of fertilizer and herbicides is almost mandatory to get and maintain a good stand.
I did it myself years ago when I had a farm that was already cleared.
Just bother me a bit to see one of the last great hardwood forest going away.