Small Hive Beetle in mainland Europe

[Adam]

My guess is that IF the BBKA can get around to a press release, most of the 'papers will print it along with 'all bees are dieing' and the oft-quoted bit from Einstein. There'll probably be something in there from one 'paper mixing up neonicitionods as well. Any bet on which one it will be? The publicity might even wake a politician up from their pre-election stupor....

[madasafish]

My guess is that IF the BBKA can get around to a press release, most of the 'papers will print it along with 'all bees are dieing' and the oft-quoted bit from Einstein. There'll probably be something in there from one 'paper mixing up neonicitionods as well. Any bet on which one it will be? The publicity might even wake a politician up from their pre-election stupor....

Pre election stupor?

I take it you are referring to the 2020 GE as nothing is going to happen for this year and next year depending on the composition of whomever forms the new Government.. in my view..

[drumgerry]

Not sure whether this is moderator policy or not but we tend to keep most general political stuff out of this forum. Something which I'm quite happy with. Even at the height of the referendum campaign we managed to keep schtum about what was going on. I'm sure all of us could debate the ins and outs of the coming election till the cows come home but there are plenty of non beekeeping venues in which to do so.

[gavin]

It is certainly a good principle to avoid political discussions wherever possible on fora like this. My comment on the referendum was this one, designed to promote reconciliation and understanding after a heated few weeks off the forum:

http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/sh...tomorrow-comes

Occasionally someone shows religious, racial or political intolerance. That is certainly something we don't want to see on here - it would either be taken down by the original poster after a nudge, or by one of the team.

In case anyone is wondering what happened to the queen and nuc rearing discussion in this thread I 'hived' (sorry!) it off to here:

www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/showthread.php?1918-Was-SHB-Now-more-queen-and-nuc-raising

[drumgerry]

I'm glad I missed that referendum thread. There's some stuff on there I would have taken issue with in the aftermath.

[gavin]

I was sorry to have started it after a bit. Anyway .... SHB ....

[drumgerry]

Fair enough Gavin I'll stop talking about not talking about politics!

[fatshark]

From the BBKA's Worker Bee newsletter …

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… actually, worse than underwhelming …

[Jon]

In some quarters the emphasis seems to be on dealing with the beetles when they arrive as opposed to taking measures to prevent their arrival.
An acceptable compromise might be to allow queens, subject to very careful inspection, but ban any form of package or nuc.
With regard to Italy itself, noone will know until late spring how far the beetles have spread. With luck they are still in the initial area of infestation but they could be far further afield by now.
The health cert does not even cover a plethora of existing bee pathogens anyway let alone SHB.

[Adam]

"In some quarters..." Correction.. "In ALL quarters..."

A health certificate for an export is a legal requirement in any case so the advert that Worker Bee is referring to is saying nothing.

I noted that Worker Bee did not state that due the members demands for an importation ban as voted on at the last ADM that the BBKA was now calling for one; lobbying the government and would be putting out a press release and alerting the media. (And calling for more government funding)..