Bee thefts in Dundee

[gavin]

I usually place a bait hive less than a km from that site and I've had good, Scottish dark bees from there. I suspect that there is a feral colony in the area. I wasn't enthusiastic about Manx Amm in the area as the breeding I want to do is from local natives not imported ones.

John, why didn't Dr Connolly go down the road of shook swarming if he wants to control what is in the wax? That seems much more realistic. Oh, and I've been told that Manx bees are far from pure Amm. If they are Amm-leaning mongrels they will look like most colonies around here.

I'm intrigued by the tone and the content of your 'piece of nonsense/downright lie' comment. Who did you have in mind there? In Tayside we've certainly struggled to help beginners find bees and I helped one last summer who had been patiently waiting for two years for local bees. Why should anyone lie to Dr Connolly about this? If it was me you are thinking about, he showed no sign of paying any attention to advice I gave him on the science of colony losses.

Please read my 10:34 post again. I was trying to explain to people why Dr Connolly might have said that his total cost was over £3k. He may have been misrepresented by the journalist who translated this to the cost of the bees alone. I repeated that message last night when the same kind of comment was made before our local committee meeting. I'm trying to be straight and fair.

This is by its nature a very high profile project. A huge amount of research cash is being invested in it, and there will be a lot of interest paid in its progress - whether it is the lab-based studies or the field survey taking place with SBA help. There are likely to be several more media frenzies and much more beekeeper comment before this project is finished. The general topic is probably the hottest one in beekeeping at the moment.

Lastly, you mention extensive losses. Here N of the Tay there have been losses but winter survival was reasonable. The main problem seems to have been queen failure of one kind or another and this was very site-specific. At my apiary things were better, but I suspect that the reason for that was that there were plenty of drones from commercial apiaries nearby. From chatting to a few in Fife, I wonder if poor Varroa control is a bigger issue in your area? Are people checking? I spoke to some who were just using powdered sugar which is as much use as a chocolate teapot. As Jon says, it is easy to check for Varroa - either bodies on bees or the faeces in vacated cells.

[Trog]

In the early days, I seem to remember folk being encouraged to use bee tobacco in the smoker to knock down varroa mites (and braula) to a white bit of paper placed under a mesh floor. Is this now not done? Or perhaps not allowed?

[gavin]

I know of no law against it. However powdered sugar has been adopted instead as a reasonable way to get a sample of the Varroa on adult bees. See:

http://www.sbai.org.uk/varroamapping/

There have been studies (can't be bothered looking for them!) that show that during the active season when there is sealed brood you remove too few to make it a sensible treatment for Varroa. If most are in sealed cells and you only remove a proportion on adults then you may only be holding the population static while you treat.

[Trog]

IIRC, it was a test you did in autumn when there was little sealed brood. Anyone else tried it?