Spraying

[Heather]

May have been asked before so apologies if so...
How soon after OSR crop spray 1 mile away will it be safe to release my bees?

 

[drstitson]

PH says he's never worried about spraying.

 

[Heather]

But I think it matters- even the drenching would wet the bees if all out foraging. Surely that is a concern...

 

[The Cumbrian]

I thought it was the convention to spray early or late so there should be no problem from drenching.

I may of course be wrong.

 

[tonybloke]

I thought it was the convention to spray early or late so there should be no problem from drenching.

I may of course be wrong.

I think you'll find spraying operations are governed by 'best practice', not by convention.

best practice may indeed be to spray either early or late in the day, but that is weather dependent.
also, if a spray contractor has several fields to spray, it ain't possible to spray them all 'first thing', is it?

'spray' and 'drench' are two totally different operations, and most field crops are 'sprayed'.

 

[Poly Hive]

Heather I took advice from ITLD and he was of the opinion as I am now that the shut in does more harm than the spray, and as far as I can see there is no odds at all from that. I should add mine are directly on the OSR usually though this year they are at one field remove to be accurate.

PH

 

[picton farm]

I have a lot of hives on a local OSR crop and they have only sprayed fungicide recently. It has been too cold here for beetle so they wont be putting an insecticide on this year now.
The fungicide shouldnt be a problem if that is all they are spraying.
Apparently the insecticides are sprayed early whenever possible but they dont worry as much about timing of fungicide spraying.

 

[Poly Hive]

My "chap" sprays both insecticide and fungicide and as above, seems to make no odds.

Remember all that the chems today are very different from what was used 20 years ago or even ten or five so things change.

However I add I do what I do at my risk and I am clear in my mind as to what that risk is.

If in any doubt at all then do what YOU think is best.

PH

 

[picton farm]

I was worried about the fungicide being sprayed in the middle of the day last monday but he didnt actually do it until almost 5pm and i cant see any dead bees today outside the hives.

 

[johnmcc]

All the fields round me (and I'm surrounded by them) are sprayed by various contract teams who observe no "best practice". We get spraying at any time of day in any wind below a gale. None of the farmers seem to give a toss, indeed some of the fields are rented by farmers whose main farm is ten or even twenty miles away. Most fields here are between 30 and 50 acres. AFAIK there is no channel of complaint other than ringing up the Farmer - and that does no good. Any ideas?

 

[porterswoods]

some of the fields are rented by farmers whose main farm is ten or even twenty miles away. Most fields here are between 30 and 50 acres.

What has that got to do with anything?

 

[Heather]

I was lucky as I contacted the farmer a while ago and asked him to phone me if he was going to spray- and he did on Wednesday. Released all this afternoon and all seems well so far. Prob lucky weather chilly so they didn't venture far.

 

[johnmcc]

some of the fields are rented by farmers whose main farm is ten or even twenty miles away.

What has that got to do with anything?

Landowner maybe abroad, rented and cultivated by who? Land "stewardship" round here is very patchy. Short of contacting Defra how would I find out?

 

[Into the lions den]

Almost all the sprays used today are actually pretty benign. Damage to the colonies either nil or minimal. Not seen a significant pesticide spray kill now for several years. We shut in nothing as there is no point. The farmers and contractors almost without exception use relatively target specific treatments and will, so far as is possible, spray out of the heat of the day. Even when they spray in the middle of the day the bees seem to be unfazed by it all, and many modern insecticides smell unpleasant (I understand they are made to in many cases) and this keeps the bes away until the spray has dried. The field is safe for the bees again in a matter of minutes. Any bee unfortunate enough to actually be struck by the spray does not make it back to the hive, and so apart from a slight loss of foragers in the worst possible case (I reckon more are eaten by birds in a day) you never notice it.

Complaining to/harrassing farmers and contractors generally has one effect............a request to leave. You become yet another difficulty they have to face and one that is easy for them to fix with a single call to tell you to remove your bees. You HAVE to work with them and not against them. Discussing the matter in a calm and informed manner with your growers usually is fine and builds a relationship whereby they will consider the bees. Most are already very 'bee aware'. We have 115 spring locations in use and not one problem landowner/farmer/contractor, and they are happy too as they are not given grief by a problem beekeeper.

We are not the top dogs in the countryside and we have to take our place in a co-operative land use structure.

 

[porterswoods]

some of the fields are rented by farmers whose main farm is ten or even twenty miles away.



Landowner maybe abroad, rented and cultivated by who? Land "stewardship" round here is very patchy. Short of contacting Defra how would I find out?

Who ever farms the ground still has to work it as would the landowner if they were doing it themselves, so I don't see how that makes a difference.

Stewardship schemes are not compolsory and if you don't claim the subsidy then the cross compliance isn't either.

What were you hoping to get out of DEFRA? They don't know who is actually farming what ground or what sprays or fertiliser are being applied when.

I know one thing complaing to DEFRA will not win the co-operation from the farmer. I would say it would do the opposite. As a farmer I don't have to tell my neighbours when I spray, if you have reported me to DEFRA I certainly wouldn't tell you.

 

[johnmcc]

What were you hoping to get out of DEFRA? They don't know who is actually farming what ground or what sprays or fertiliser are being applied when.

My point exactly. Not sure why you're apparently attacking what I posted earlier. There is no accountability, and the contract sprayers don't seem to abide by safe spraying guidelines, as I understand them.

 

[porterswoods]

What have you seen that makes you think they are doing something wrong?

 

[johnmcc]

Er . . . like I said:

We get spraying at any time of day in any wind below a gale.

What is this? 20 Questions?

 

[Into the lions den]

Er . . . like I said:

What is this? 20 Questions?

I thought it a fair enough question. They could be spraying a harmless fungicide. Before making a complaint you should go and ask what it is they are spraying. Most will tell you (although that very much depends on your demeanor when you approach them). Some may tell you to go mind your own business (or technicolour expressions carrying the same meaning) but have not met one of those for many years.

Don't go thinking my attitude makes me soft on pesticides. Probably unlike anyone else who has a grumble I actually sued a contractor and won, and took 4.5K out of their hide. Long time ago though, 1985, and that would be the equivalent of several times that today. Thought I would lose farms because of it, but surprisingly the attitude from the farmers was that the contractor in question had it coming to them. I did not even lose the farm where the case occurred. So even getting on for 30 years ago the attitudes were changing to favour bees.

 

[Foxylad]

I'm friendly with the spray man on the estate,

It was raining yesterday, when they were spraying liquid fertiliser.

I asked him when he would be spraying the OSR and he said they wouldn't bother now as it was to late.