All fur coat and no knickers ...

**gavin** · 17-02-2015, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Jon

Gavin Ramsay Esq. can clear it all up for us.

What happened to that BSc and PhD?! Anyway, I seem to recall that you had to correct me on the genetics of bee body colour

**Poly Hive** · 17-02-2015, 03:30 PM

Sorry Gavin but I do not agree. Varroa is here to stay and needs to be managed as it is near inevitable it will penetrate eventually. I know it is sad and so on but most thought the Channel would work....

Many people took cells from Bernard and one of the big ones was Bert Mason at St Curus that might be worth a phone call. Also Struan had a lot of Mauds at one time and may still have something worth a look.

PH

**gavin** · 17-02-2015, 03:42 PM

Not completely inevitable for some communities that advertise their health status and beg people not to bring them in. However, if nothing changes, yes - small hive beetle, Tropilaelaps, Lake Sinai Virus that cause such problems when associated with Nosema ceranae in Spain and any bee pathogen under the sun will get here sooner or later.

The guy who took on Bert Mason's bees was down to 7 colonies a couple of years back before restocking, I presume with imports as the other bee farmers were doing so at the time. I know less about the Robertsons but will ask when I see them next, thanks. Unless Gerry gets there first.

**busybeephilip** · 17-02-2015, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Jon

All you need is 3 or 4 breeders with good stock and you can multiply up as many queens as needed for those interested in working with native stock.
.

The buckfast breeders are also saturating areas with drones up and down the country, soon there will be more drones flying than workers ! (just kidding)

**Jimbo** · 17-02-2015, 06:15 PM

In Ewan's Acarine study there were about 80-90 samples sent from various areas of Scotland of those about 25% were pure Amm with the next 25% were near Amm using wing morphometry
The usual areas showed up ie the west coast and the islands, however there was a hot spot in an area just south of Edinburgh .
Anybody got ideas why there is this hot spot?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

**Poly Hive** · 17-02-2015, 07:35 PM

I heard that Mason had a bit of a habit of losing colonies but that was pretty colossal, he was supposed to have 1000+

I'll give Hamish a call and see if there is anything lurking still.

PH

**drumgerry** · 18-02-2015, 05:22 PM

I think you're right about us all not really having the time till later in the year Gavin. I think the subject of a native bee society does merit further discussion and perhaps a private section is that place for that. I can also see the point of keeping it in the public domain. Happy with either situation so long as we start inching towards something concrete!