Big losses reported in NZ bees - implications for imports.

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An Auckland beekeeper who has set up 300 hives around the region says his insects have started dying at an alarming rate.

He believes a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), which has wiped out bees and reduced food crops around the world, may have reached New Zealand.

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...ectid=10832939

Usual caveats apply about how the press like to hype up a story about bees dying.

What worries me is that queens (and some packages as well) are still being imported from NZ into the UK.
I don't know if any have been imported to Ireland but they are certainly all over Scotland and England as the Coop project caused controversy last year when it decided to use imported NZ Carniolans on some of its farm sites in England.
A big deal is made of the stringent health checks on imports - but if we are dealing with an unknown pathogen,virus or whatever (and noone yet knows what causes CCD) how can veterinary health checks screen for that?

We should have been able to keep the UK and Ireland varroa free but importing bees from elsewhere brought that curse to our beekeeping.

Surely time to tighten up on imports or stop them altogether.
The problem is that once a new pathogen arrives you can't turn back the clock with the benefit of hindsight.

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Originally Posted by Jon

We should have been able to keep the UK and Ireland varroa free but importing bees from elsewhere brought that curse to our beekeeping.

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I'm with you in general on the risks of importing. Not just the risks of importing new disease, but any industry in the UK that needs to regularly import livestock because it can't keep enough of its own stock alive or propagate it to keep the business going just doesn't deserve to be taken seriously ....

... however this NZ story smacks of the Hackenberg factor. Someone shouting wolf who should have been paying better attention to the health of his stock.

The National Beekeepers Association of NZ are saying that they doubt that NZ is seeing CCD.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU120...s-have-ccd.htm

Mr Paul was commenting on a NZ Herald article that indicated CCD may be occurring in NZ.
“It’s very unlikely,” he said.

“We’re probably seeing the effects of the increasing resistance to the treatments that are used to control the varroa mite and while that’s not unexpected, it is still a concern.”

Have a look at the NZ beekeepers forum where a fair degree of scepticism is being expressed on the CCD claim. The beekeeper involved seems to use dowsing to locate hive positions (oh dear .... ) and puts 'blockers' in his hives to counteract 3g and other telecommunications signals. It is the usual Piss Poor Beekeeper wanting to blame something other than himself for the losses of his own bees and those he's sold to hapless beginners.

http://www.nzbees.net/forum/threads/...e-arrived.1448

Not that this stops some of the nutters on the BKF blaming kiwifruit pesticides ....

It was all sorted out back in September. The guy making the noise is interviewed on here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...;v=net2hlhWRBs

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Originally Posted by gavin

Not that this stops some of the nutters on the BKF blaming kiwifruit pesticides ....

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Doubt it'll stop some of 'em on here either....

The forum was an interesting read.
Seems to be more like a combination of PPB and resistant varroa mite than CCD.

It is amazing the number of experienced beekeepers who underestimate the devastating effect of a combination of varroa and its viruses.

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Originally Posted by Jon

Surely time to tighten up on imports or stop them altogether.
The problem is that once a new pathogen arrives you can't turn back the clock with the benefit of hindsight.

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I agree that the imports need to be tightened up, not stopped altogether, my idea would be to only allow registered Queen breeders (this would need to be set up) to import up to say ten queens per season and no more, these could be properly checked out, and would be only the very expensive ones in general, not the mass imports as is the case now. I would like this to be imports from within Europe only, and no imports of packages, nucs, full hives, at all, from anywhere.

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Originally Posted by Jon

It is amazing the number of experienced beekeepers who underestimate the devastating effect of a combination of varroa and its viruses.

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Looking at the pictures of brood combs in that video it looks like varroa damage to me, i suspect they have been caught out by mites resistant to treatment in NZ in many cases, just like we were in this country back in 2002, when many lost their colonies through being complacent, Then of course there is this guy ..... did he even bother?

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Originally Posted by Pete L

I agree that the imports need to be tightened up, not stopped altogether, my idea would be to only allow registered Queen breeders (this would need to be set up) to import up to say ten queens per season and no more, these could be properly checked out, and would be only the very expensive ones in general, not the mass imports as is the case now. I would like this to be imports from within Europe only, and no imports of packages, nucs, full hives, at all, from anywhere.

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Hi pete.
That would certainly be a big step forward in terms of minimising risk, although to be honest, I don't know how we can be lacking in sufficient genetic material in the UK at this point. Surely with the number of colonies you manage you would have no problem at all selecting several good breeder queens to graft from.

With the hobby beekeepers it seems like an easier option to buy a queen rather than get involved with a local breeding group for some reason.
The commercial beekeepers must find it cheaper or maybe just more reliable to use imported queens or packages rather than breeding their own.

Trouble is, beekeeping does not exist in a vacuum and one rogue beekeeper could wreck the hobby for the amateurs and make commercial beekeeping non viable.
Look how many commercial beekeepers have given up in the US.
Varroa first arrived in Ireland in the back end of nowhere near the Leitrim Sligo Border.

On the whole i do select my own breeder queens, and run separate lines, only imported two breeder queens in 2012, both from within Europe. One of the largest honey farms which is not far from me never import, or indeed buy in any queens at all, they manage just fine...even in a bad season like 2012. Was chatting to a well known AMM breeder on a island up north,even he was thinking about importing some breeder queens, either from Denmark or Tasmania (the latter would be out with my idea) so i believe strict controls as i mentioned earlier would be the way to go. I know we have better weather for mating down south generally, and with a little effort and dedication northern breeders could do the queen rearing and mating down south...there are even islands available if needed, nothing really worth doing was ever easy, but it can be done thats for sure. Even with the bad weather during 2012 i still have a good surplus of well mated queens over wintering....and over wintering queens for use in early spring, if needed, is a much better way forward in my view than importing.

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Originally Posted by Pete L

Was chatting to a well known AMM breeder on a island up north,even he was thinking about importing some breeder queens, either from Denmark or Tasmania (the latter would be out with my idea)

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He should talk to the Irish if he needs a queen or two!
There are a lot of breeders working with AMM including at least one commercial guy based near Waterford.

Can't think why he'd want to go to Denmark. Yes, the Irish solution - or more Amm from the Scottish mainland seems better. If it is the island I'm thinking of, Varroa-free would be required unless he's going to check his queens very carefully. But if I was him I'd stick to Scottish stock.