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Thread: Distribution map of native and near-native bees

  1. #11
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    The latest SB has a list of secretaries of local associations. Just had a look at the German site and one placemark pointed straight at a house but others were less likely spots for apiaries. I guess that he's moving the exact site.

    Saw the window cleaner at the sweetie shop! Quite a busy day in downtown Stromness.

    I could probably set up something on the home page to show this permanently ... but do we want to reveal sites of native stocks?

  2. #12
    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    ... I see!

    On Google Earth different types of placemarks can be chosen and placed to hover high above the site, that way the true location cannot be identified, which would be preferable. But I don't know if this works on Google Maps, too.

    I don't know how to upload a link to Google Eath here. ?

    If the location we give is only very approximate, why shouldn't we show those sites? We don't need to give the names of the owners, just a reference number maybe?

    Doris

  3. #13
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I was about to say: no, you can't do this with Google Earth, and at work we instead offer a download of a Google Earth locations file for the potato collection I look after. But having just checked it seems that I'm wrong and you can now embed GE in your own web site, and have your own layers showing.

    Worth looking into more.

    G.

  4. #14
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    I've heard that thieves are already using GE to target apiaries (and other things, obviously). Do we really want to publicise which areas might be most valuable (assuming that dark bees are inherently more valuable to anyone other than officionados, that is!)?

  5. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    Hi Doris,

    There has been interest in this by John Durkacz and myself. John would like to repeat the work by John and Morna Stokley where they showed colonies in Scotland of pure native breeds. We did discuss the possibility of mapping the colonies with Donna Clark from Moray.
    I agreed to check wings using Drawwing for beekeepers from the West and John would do the East. We still need somebody for the North and South
    I did a survey of 10 beekeepers and 35 colonies in my area in 2007 and plotted the distribution. Beekeepers come and go so I repeated the survey again in 2009 and found the distribution had changed to the detriment of the near native AMM. It would still be good to identify pure black colonies so if anybody has any ideas on how to set up the survey I would be interested.

    Jimbo
    Hi all,

    have just joined the forum and started checking out the morphometry posts after advice from Doris.

    I went down to the BIBBA morphometry workshop with Jimbo and John. Excellent course, learned a lot and am now doing small-scale morphometry in my own area. Am happy to take on any morphometry needing done and also to get involved in mapping as I know about GIS.

    Donna

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    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Hi Donna and welcome aboard!

    Your input, especially with regards to the mapping, will be very much appreciated.

    Doris

  7. #17
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    Hi Donna,

    Welcome! I have just sent you an e-mail telling you to look at the forum site and have just discovered you are here already. It will be great to have your imput on mapping.

    Jimbo

  8. #18

    Default Native Honey Bee

    Great to see the interest being taken in the Native Bee! I had a visitor to our apiary the other day who commented that he had second brood boxes on and in some cases the third. There I was struggling to get by on a single brood as the winds have been cold and the bees just want to take their time. I did feel a little small but then I realised that my bees might be true local bees and they will not take off until they feel ready. I have completed my morphometry for last year and the results showed reasonable native characteristics and now I will have to check all over again to see what has happened with the new queens mated last year.

    It is 17 years since the Stoakley survey showed that 33% of the sampled colonies were typically native and 33% were near native. This survey was spread well around Scotland but importantly , the sampling of hives within apiaries was random. These gratifying results were spread around Scotland. I see from the posts that people have been asking what to do next. Here are a few ideas to mull over:
    1. Repeat a random survey and compare the results. Is the situation better or worse for the Dark Bee?
    Or are we just wasting time?
    2. Make focussed searches for the Dark Bee so that good breeding stock can be located. This could be
    done at Local Association level and then these stocks could be assessed for behavioural
    characteristics and future shared breeding plans developed.
    3. Develop a coordinated more sophisticated survey which would collect data to use in negotiation
    with the Scottish Government to set up safe zones for Apis mellifera mellifera. The recent huge bee
    losses and expected re-stocking by importations might just scupper the chances of Amm survival in
    many parts of Scotland.
    Here is what John Stoakley had to say back in 1997;
    '...........if I wanted to persuade the authorities that such and such a region, however defined geographically, was particularly suitable as an "Amm- only zone" I would want to be able to show not just that it had a lot of Amm colonies in it but in a respectable scientific way that it had a high incidence of such colonies proportionate to the total population of colonies in that region. To obtain this information I would divide the country into a number of regions of suitable size .......and compile a list of many willing beekeepers....and known feral colonies...............From each list I would select a number of beekeepers strictly at random and then ask them each to provide one or more colony samples, again at random, from within their apiaries. With populations sampled in this way, proper statistical analysis (analysis of variance) would make it possible to say that such a region or regions, have a significantly higher incidence of Amm colonies than others. It might then be possible to home in on results to search for breeder colonies or make a concentrated search in a given area.'

    However JS was very practical and though he favoured the idea of a safe zone for Amm he doubted there would be the political will for this and that enforcement would be near impossible.

    Alvearium

  9. #19
    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Welcome to the forum, Alvearium!

    Interest in the native bee is growing, indeed.

    2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity and funding for a project to conserve the native bee might be available: http://www.hlf.org.uk/news/Pages/Fun...ityin2010.aspx (I know, I have posted this link before)

    The grant could be used to do a proper study on distribution, and those data could then be used to lobby for protected breeding areas for native bees, like they have had them in Switzerland for 30 years already.

    Doris

  10. #20
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alvearium View Post

    However JS was very practical and though he favoured the idea of a safe zone for Amm he doubted there would be the political will for this and that enforcement would be near impossible.
    I'm not so sure sbout the need for pessimism regarding the political will. May have more to say on this tomorrow!

    Quote Originally Posted by Alvearium View Post
    . Here are a few ideas to mull over:
    1. Repeat a random survey and compare the results. Is the situation better or worse for the Dark Bee?
    Or are we just wasting time?
    2. Make focussed searches for the Dark Bee so that good breeding stock can be located. This could be
    done at Local Association level and then these stocks could be assessed for behavioural
    characteristics and future shared breeding plans developed.
    3. Develop a coordinated more sophisticated survey which would collect data to use in negotiation
    with the Scottish Government to set up safe zones for Apis mellifera mellifera. The recent huge bee
    losses and expected re-stocking by importations might just scupper the chances of Amm survival in
    many parts of Scotland.
    Both 1 and 2 meantime, maybe 3 if someone has the funding? I like the idea of a random survey as it would give a good honest picture. Don't be too pessimistic about stocks surviving in areas of previous imports, though I do have to say that talk of high levels of imports in 2010 worries me.

    best wishes

    Gavin

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