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Message: <blockquote data-quote="John B" data-source="post: 11544" data-attributes="member: 207">I can only comment on poisoning in Hawke's Bay but I imagine it is somewhat similar to what you would down there. In my grandfather's time the lead arsenic sprays killed hives out right and various other sprays have been killing bees ever since. In the last 10 years it has become much less of a problem with newer sprays and orchardists being a lot more careful. At my home here I can remember seeing over 50% of the bees in a hive being killed but I haven't seen any poisoning at all for around 10 years. It's not just sprays that go on the apple flowers but also the sprays getting onto flowering ground plants like clover and hedges like Willows.The bottom line is these days it's generally reasonably safe to keep bees around orchards although you will get some poisoning sooner or later.. Bees die all the time and the odd bee lying dead out the front is generally not poisoning. With poisoning you will see dead bees both on the entrance and immediately in front of the hive that have all died within a very short time of each other.These days I am more scared of getting AFB from poorly maintained orchard hives than getting my hives badly poisoned. Orchard areas have always been and probably always will be a danger zone when it comes to AFB.</blockquote>

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