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Congratulations on your Native bee reserve, however you may not be able to claim as being the first in the U.K. as the Scottish government gave conservation protection to the island of Colonsay for the Scottish native AMM a number of years ago. You might be also be interested in looking at the...

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We already have Andrew Abrahams on Colonsay providing queens to some bee breeding projects. Ardnmurchan is also producing queens as well as other groups mainly in the West coast of which we know the providence There has been some surveys done on bee stocks in Scotland which has turned up other...

This is a new society. SNHBS is about to have its official launch on the 1st April The steering group behind the society so far has produced a constitution suitable for it to receive charitable status, set up a web site, Facebook page, and twitter account. It has also booked a central location...

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The biggest threat to bees is the person standing next to your hive

Hi Stiffy, We live on a peninsula in a fairly remote area of Scotland. We have monitored the bees for over 10 years from the beekeepers in this area. In the first survey approx 80% of our native bees were pure Amm using wing morphometry plus other Amm characteristics The other 20% were near...

I agree with Gavin, Our association which is next to the area of the original poster can supply a local produced Nuc. We have supplied bees to this area in the past. All you have to do is contact the Helensburgh association and place your name on the waiting list. If you join for a small fee...

Hi Sheena, To clarify your point about commercial beekeepers importing bees into Scotland. Yes they do , however not in the West of Scotland as the area is not viable enough for them. The commercial beekeepers are usually found in the Perth area and to the East in Tayside

Hi Sheena, Have you contacted Dunoon beekeepers association? I was over there a few years ago giving them a talk and I know they are keen in breeding from their local stocks and may assist in getting you a locally produced nuc. If they can't help then contact me at Helensburgh Beekeeping...

The Colonsay bees are not only Amm but are also varroa free. It is the Scottish goverment not the UK goverment who wish to protect this unique genetic resource and has asked various interested parties including the Scottish Beekeeping Association on their views. There are up to 50 colonies on...

If you want the bees to draw foundation feed with 1:1 sugar solution from a contact feeder

What about Pepsi will that work as well?

Any general lab supplier eg Fisher, VWR, Jencons. You may need to phone them to see if they will supply to the public

My queen mating this year has been poor due to poor weather and no it has nothing to do with pesticides. All my colonies were checked for pesticide and chemical residues in wax and larvae this year as part of a study conducted by Leeds University. The result no chemicals detected in any of my...

Hi Ladamegabrielle. Loch Carron may still be in a varroa free area of Scotland. You can check the map published on the SBA web site. Even if you are in the varroa free area you should still be monitoring for mites. Contact your local association for assistance on monitoring

The Scottish Amm give values of 90-100% using DrawWing wing morphometry. These are bees that have never been selected or specially bred. They are just our native local bees. Some have had DNA analysis carried out which confirms they are Amm and we are waiting for more DNA results to confirm...

Amm has not died out. They can be found is some areas of Scotland in particular in the varroa free areas

If you put bees into an apidea without the queen cell within minutes they will start to roar. The roar is quite loud. When you insert a ripe queen cell within minutes the roar will stop. This is the only time I hear roaring but there may be other reasons.

After reading this report in Science I find it amusing that the researchers from Sheffield went to Hawaii as they needed to compare bees infected with varroa with varroa free colonies. They could have went to the varroa free areas of Scotland instead to do their research but if you had the...