1. Discuss the different philosophies on beekeeping espoused by commercial keepers such as Menendez vs. Organic keepers such as “The Queen Bee.” (The woman in Arizona)
Commercial beekeepers routinely kill the queen after only a few months and replace her with a younger artificially raised one. Beekeepers remove the queen from the hive, pinch her head and then introduce a surrogate in a cage. The cage prevents the colony from killing the foreign queen until the adapt to her scent. They also use insemination collected from male drones. They do this to select from certain traits. Another method is the practice of taking honey away from the hives and replacing it with sugar syrup. Organic beekeepers do not feed the bees sugar syrup they also are against the use of Miticides.
2. Discuss the various things that are thought to contribute to CCD. Of these, which is thought to be the most significant factor? What evidence is there to support this?
Scientists turned to farming methods to explain the collapse of bees. They thought the use systemic pesticides, such as Gaucho an Poncho, were reasons why bees die. They found pesticides, but they did not know what they were doing to the bees. You would be able to see the dead bees around the hive. However, there were no dead bees in sight.

3. Why do the American Beekeepers have a difficult time selling honey? How can this contribute to the problem facing the bees?
It is hard for American Beekeepers to sell honey because they are forced to go migratory because they cannot sell their honey and make a living, which forces them to go into factory farming. Once they are on the road they artificially feed them. If they are on the road and artificially feeding their bees and something goes wrong they lose about 10% of their queens and they are then forced to buy artificial queens. Once they are forced into migratory they are forced into “going down a road to hell.” they also can’t compete with the worlds honey prices because the prices pins American sellers against a wall. The price of honey is unreasonable due to “funny honey.”
4. What is monoculture, and why is the practice harmful to sustainable farming?
Monoculture is having a large acreage of one specific type of crop. There are not many bees likely to be around a monoculture, because for 50 weeks a year there is no food in a monoculture. In order to keep a monoculture going you need intervention, such as pesticides because pests love monoculture. To uphold monoculture farming we spray our crops with harmful chemicals. We used similar chemicals to kill people in World War II, to kill pests on crops in agriculture such as DDT’s. Until recently, farmers applied pesticides topically to their crops, and farmers could protect their bees by moving them away from the crops. If the pesticides did cause a problem they could tell by the dead bees. These pesticides kill insects by inflicting sublethal damage. They weaken immune systems, disrupt digestion, impair navigational abilities, and harm the brain.
5. Describe the difference between the way European countries deal with pesticides vs. the USA and the EPA. Be sure to include the concept of “The Precautionary Principal,” in your answer.
Many European countries followed France’s lead staging protests. British beekeepers called for research funding to understand the bee crisis. Italy, Germany, and Slovenia placed bans on certain pesticides. They believe this is the reason for the collapse of colonies. Most European governments use the Precautionary Principal when approving the use of pesticides. This places safety as the main priority when regulating toxic chemicals intending for errors to always fall on the side of caution. The EPA decides whether or not to approve a pesticide based on what is called “risk assessment.” This practice allows to for exposing the public to risk, as long as the EPA determines these risks are reasonable. The EPA’s research relies on the research of the company that profits off of the products use.
6. What did France do to address CCD and what was the result? Fifteen years ago colonies began to collapse in France in the same order as colony collapse disorder, which they called “mad bee disease.” French beekeepers took to the streets in protests. They (the beekeepers) hired lawyers and filed lawsuit with sufficient evidence. France banned systemic pesticides on corn and sunflowers