Colonsay reserve approved!

[prakel]

Ok but lets say someone on Colonsay other than Andrew Abrahams wants to keep bees
Are they to obtain bees from him or could they bring in AMM bees from Ireland
How are AMM bees defined in this legislation
Presumably all this has been covered in some way

I asked a similar question on the other thread, having read the link which Gavin put up I saw no mention of specifically Scottish/British amm. I think that it's great that some effort has been made in this direction -thankfully in an area where no other existing beekeepers will suffer from finding that their colonies are now classed as illegal -during the middle of winter, five or six months before they would realistically have chance of requeening. I wonder whether French/Danish/Dutch amm are deemed to be as good (from a conservation reserve perspective) as Scottish stock for the purposes of the legislation.

[Feckless Drone]

The BBC website reports a new initiative whereby an MSP becomes the spokesperson/advocate for the protection and well being of endangered native species in Scotland. I emailed the Scottish Environment LINK trying to find out who spoke up for the native honey bee. The Great Yellow Bumblebee (Dave Stewart MSP), and the solitary bee Andrena Ruficrus (Richard Lyle MSP) have champions but not the native honey bee. I was asked if I wanted to nominate an MSP who might be approached - any ideas? I put the question out there trusting that members of this forum are bound to have names and knowledge of who might or might not be a suitably informed spokesperson with interests in this area and in the past some communications with our elected reps has taken place. So - ideas?

[Mellifera Crofter]

FD, I like the idea of having an MSP being a 'black bee champion', but I don't have a clue who to suggest - so I looked at a list of MSPs, and as there are so many, I limited myself to the two Green MSPs and out of those two I liked Alison Johnstone's biography - but then noticed that she already supports the brown hare. Perhaps that doesn't matter because I also noticed that David Stewart, who is supporting the Great Yellow Bumblebee, supports two species.

So, I tentatively suggest Alison Johnstone to take on the native bee as a second specie, or David Stewart to take them on as a third specie. Perhaps it would make sense for David to take on the black bee because bumble bees will also be affected by the small hive beetle should it get here. I don't think solitary bees are at risk from the small hive beetle.

Apart from what appears on their biographies, I don't know anything else about my two suggestions.
Kitta

[GRIZZLY]

Do we have any MSP beekeepers ?.

[gavin]

Here's one bee-sympathetic MSP. Richard Lockhead is another - he opened the Moray apiary.

http://www.peeblesshirenews.com/news...stated-stocks/

Grahame gets busy to help beekeepers restore devastated stocks


Published: 23 May 2013 06:570 comments

THE announcement of a £200,000 fund to help commercial bee farmers prompted a group of individual beekeepers to contact Borders MSP Christine Grahame.

There are around 1,500 individual beekeepers in Scotland who to date have not received government help to restock after severe weather conditions diminished, and in some cases completely wiped out, their colonies.

Representatives from Borders beekeepers contacted Ms Grahame who now has asked Environment Minister Richard Lochhead to step in and help.

She said: "The Scottish Government has pledged £200,000 to help commercial farmers rebuild their hives but some Borders beekeepers don't qualify for funding."

"I have explained to the Minister that these hives are vital to the biodiversity of town and country and I am hoping he will agree to establish a scheme to provide one association per district with a modest grant for the purpose of breeding queens. This would be distributed thereafter to other associations in the district allowing colonies to be replenished by letting nature, and of course, the bees do the rest of the work."

Ms Grahame said: "A small injection of cash could really help these beekeepers restore their stocks. The money could fund artificial insemination of the queens then these queens would be distributed to other associations in the area. This will then guarantee a well mated queen regardless of the weather conditions and could contribute substantially to helping bee preservation."

[Feckless Drone]

Richard Lockhead Christine Grahame.

Yes, two possibilities. The Environment minister would of course be an important representative for the native bee - should be informed about many different (conflicting) aspects of beekeeping in Scotland. With a new FM on the way, then there may be some changes brewing so lets see what the situation is
next week.