Interesting link tks.
Interesting link tks.
I will be meeting a large scale beekeeper from very close to this area socially next week on a trip out to Italy. I will ask about the latest view on this while out there and will feed back.
Just back last night.
Talking to a big queen breeder with links to the south, but no actual activity there...the guy I thought I might meet was not there.
SHB is a problem. They do not think it a serious bee problem and so far there is no sign of spread, and again got the same info that they think their weather is marginal for it. It is however a serious problem for their reputation (his word not mine) and that many clients are under pressure about trading with Italy full stop. About the spring find he had no information to pass on.
However, once back in the UK we met a guy with links to Australia. It was perhaps surprising that SHB was not an issue in Aus, at least the part where it had been found and was widely distributed. This was the view up until very recently. now they seem to have moved away from that somewhat and there appear to be circumstances over there where it becomes a problem. That story will run, but the climate there seems ideal so it was perhaps more surprising that it had not been a problem before.
Hi Calluna4u,
You say that these people think SHB is not a problem. What point of view are they talking from:
- bee farmers?
- hobby beekeepers?
- wild bee colonies?
Some of us would like to see this native species once again able to exist in its own right. From everything I have learned, it seems that the introduction of varroa is the single biggest reason why we have precious few feral colonies left, and perhaps no self-sustaining wild population of bees. Could SHB become another thing which is a controllable nuisance for beekeepers, but which absolutely prevents wild colonies from surviving?
We have cost the wild far too much, in terms of habitat & other impacts, as it is.
Emma
The old Maxim of the customer is always right might guide the actions of anyone thinking of importing bees from Italy
It would be damaging to their long term prospects and if anyone was found to have small hive beetle I would guess their business is dead between movement restrictions and lost sales
Course as C4u has pointed out the fly by night operators wont care
How does their local weather or climate compare with us here in Britain?Originally Posted by Calluna4u
Emma, I honestly don't know. The guy I was talking to might have a gain to make from either a ban or an open doors policy.
They guy I hoped to talk to, but was not there, has gained much from Sicily in particular being off limits as he got a big slice of their package bee market. Calabria itself is of little consequence in the market. Yet he too thinks it all to be a severe over reaction.
The queen rearer thinks it a reputation problem and not actually a practical problem on the ground. Again it was restated that they think the Calabrian climate is on the margins for SHB.
I was only relating what was told to me out there, and leave it at that.
Incidentally, only yesterday a beekeeper with SHB experience in its native South African range was talking about the issue. Even there it seems to be climatically constrained in its distribution, at least in the area where it 'does well'.
I got some interesting information on that front this week past. I will not be repeating it on open forum, but it will go to the appropriate people this week. Relates to risky and non risky shipments moving on the quiet and at last I have some names (at both ends of the trade) to pass up the line.
Quite sure some of you on here will have been buying them as home bred at high prices.
If some fingers of suspicion are already pointing......................NOTHING I have indicates any misdoing by anyone based in Scotland.
I find this to be an interesting statement in the sense that it touches on a subject which I've been wondering about but to which (like so much in beekeeping) there seems to be no concensus of oppinion.
The question which I've asked various people is how do mating nucs stand up to SHB? Even in a marginal climate I would imagine that there might be an issue.
This isn't some sort of loaded question as I'm not in the anti-import camp. Genuine interest in the mechanics of how this may work out in practice.
Feedback on that that I had is that in areas of *heavy* SHB infestation, which with few exceptions means the subtropical states of the USA, mating nucs are very prone to serious attack.
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