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Hi @Into the lions den Would you consider supporting an initiative based around breeding Amm in Ireland to supply the demand here? Then the commercial bee keepers you are in contact with would know they had someone with a lot of experience helping them to develop more commercially friendly...

Hi Apiarist - I wasn't privy to the drafting of the recent Bill but I would imagine the idea of leaving the possibility of imports of Amm back into Ireland was to do with conservation. If there was an outbreak of a disease catastrophic (less likely if there was a ban on imports) to the existing...

Ok - let's use Tigers as the example instead of wolves https://news.mongabay.com/2018/10/genome-wide-study-confirms-there-are-six-tiger-subspecies/#:~:text=Of%20course%2C%20some%20differences%20between,fur%20with%20thick%2C%20black%20stripes. I think this study can help peoples understanding...

I think the coming together of a number of national bee keeping organisations that otherwise do not necessarily get on and in fact two of which emerged from a fractious split does show that this has the grass roots support of beekeepers here in Ireland. Look I would like to extend an olive...

Do tell how quoting official government statistics failed to prove my case?

That is a great return from a nuc. I think there were many beekeepers here who would have averaged much more than 30 kgs this year - it was an amazing year for honey. Shows a lot of potential in the native genetics you have! The Beekeeping Research Centre at Clonroche, Co. Wexford kept...

You are entitled to that opinion of course but maybe you should come over to Ireland and visit some breeders of these 'hybrids' you are talking about. I am sure you will have a great time and go home with a better understanding of what so many are trying to protect.

What I took from the comments was a general mocking of Irish efforts to conserve our native bee. And that we would have been lucky to have ITLD bring his bees over here.

Yes - I have read this thread. Some very unfortunate opinions expressed throughout - in my opinion. What do you think ITLD is going to say? That nobody in Ireland wanted his bees? Should a few commercial beekeepers opinions trump the majority?

As someone wiser than I said to me earlier, and I hope they don't mind me quoting them 'If I Iived in Italy I would keep Ligustica, if I lived in Slovenia I would keep Carnica and I would be just as passionate." There are plenty of AMM strains that are docile and productive - a good commercial...

For sure. I know lots of beekeepers that aren't members of any association. What I would say is that it is a minor miracle that all these bee keeping organisations came together in a common cause. I think that alone shows that there is grass roots support for this initiative.

Hi Apiarist, this is the study Partial reproductive isolation between European subspecies of honey bees - Apidologie I think - and this is only interpreting anecdotal evidence - that this self selection can be seen in Ireland and the UK. If it wasn't the case then things would be far more...

Look we clearly won't agree on this subject. I have set out my arguments and they will hopefully inform those looking to make decisions about what kind of bee they want to keep going forward. You have set out yours - which seem to amount to "I want to keep whatever kind of bee I want - so...

"There are 4,462 beekeepers in Ireland in 2019 and 27,040 bee colonies* (full hives and nucleus hives**). Though there are some commercial beekeepers with 100+ hives, the vast majority of beekeepers in Ireland are hobbyists, the median average number of hives per beekeeper being 3 full hives."...

How can I force my beliefs on anyone through a forum? I am sharing my beliefs sure. It is up to others to take from those contributions what they will.

Really? you have been on here long enough and read the posts

I will repeat - every major beekeeping organisation in Ireland backs the ban on the importation of non native bees. Pretty clear I would think. Blinkered because they want to conserve their native honey bee sub-species? Ok I will settle for being blinkered then. Amm in its pure/near pure...

You can take it any way you want - I can't force my beliefs on anyone but I can make clear arguments in support of keeping your native honey bee. And in general what I am trying to do is make sure that casual readers/new beekeepers of this forum don't get mislead by some of the clearly anti...

As I said in my post the majority of beekeepers in Ireland do share my beliefs and there are a small minority that don't. All the main bee keeping organisations in Ireland have called for a ban on the importation of bees and there has recently been a bill introduced to our Seanad (similar to the...

Absolutely - if this was any other animal/insect/plant native to the UK or Ireland that was under threat from an invasive competitor - people would not spend hours trying to denigrate or create false histories to justify its extermination