The main reason for the increase is a tightening up of procedures and thus improved reporting, not a real rise in numbers coming in. Statistics can SEEM to show anything you want them to.
A few points arise throughout the thread.
Packages officially reported from Italy actually represent little threat. They are produced nearer to Dover than to SHB. Its a LONG country. The Italian authorities a scrupulous and every consignment that has traces documents is carefully checked. Have seen them in there shining torches all over the cages bottoms looking for anything untoward. They have an important trade to protect and are fussier than anyone at this end. Once in the UK a bee inspector will see each and every one of them and a full list of recipients is provided to the NBU, and if they have more than 10 they are individually certificated.
The danger is the cheap unofficial ones...being sold from the south of Italy and rebadged. They arrive here stated to be French or even Greek, and there is little can be done to tell them from what they are stated to be. If they are cheap be very wary. There are ads in the German bee press warning of this very link.
Queen prices? well there are some very cheap queens available out there but if you want bees selected from and raised for northern use then 15 euros at source is about the best you will get...........and once the shipper has covered losses and transport....if you get them under 20 quid you are doing very well.
Also....the statistics do, as pointed out, ONLY cover those reported from third countries, and from the EU those that have had TRACES documents supplied.
Its also not confidential...these figures are all on the public pages on BeeBase. this story is no scoop or revelation. If you are able to sign in you can also see consignment details.
One incident took place at Milan Malpensa last summer when a consignment of queens was found and checked on. That caused a full check of their system and they found consignments totalling 1200 queens....and that was on one day in one shipping company in one airport.... and only 200 had TRACES. NONE were headed for the UK, and this is only a story as related to me by one of my Italian contacts. This was a private company's check, not an official one, triggered by a new manager who saw the bees and enforced the company's 'no livestock' policy. Only 17% with papers, the rest 'dark' shipments.
As one with a foot in both camps, rearing a large number of home bred queens, I think I can reflect reasonably fairly on what goes on. It is NOT practical in a UK setting to cover all bases from home produced stock. Put your amateur hat on and it seems simple (hence a lot of 'holier than thou' statements that come out on this subject) but it is actually far from it. Many people depend on their bees for a living..and many farmers depend on the timed supply of bees for their pollination. In many parts of the UK this means the bees are needed before UK supplies are available, and, overwintered nucs apart, UK supplies are more for establishing colonies for overwintering...a gamble in itself.....than for a full crop first year. Whether some roll their eyes back at that or not, its a hard necessity if your roof over your head depends on it. Only this morning I was talking with someone who is bringing in 100 5 bar nucs on combs from the EU in April as its the only way they can get the bees they need at a time and price that is viable. Will they show up on BeeBase? We will have to wait and see.
Hard question. You need queens (or packages) to get colonies going in order for them to get you some honey to pay your bills later in the year. Which of these do you prefer?
1. Imported stock which, if you are selective, can be here by late April, bred from bees from and for a northern environment. They are fully inspected, both at source, during preparation, and again after arrival. They are 40 to 60% of the price of option 2.
2. UK produced stock which is without official inspection or certificate, and only if overwintered nucs will it be available in time for a crop that year. They may in fact be bred from imported breeder queens, buyer needs to check. (Nothing wrong with that btw, the top UK queen producer uses imported mothers.) you cannot get a firm delivery date, and orders are often weeks late in arriving. Sometimes never.
If you need to be reliable and viable which do you go for?
Colouring my judgement on this is that only about half of the times I have ordered from UK producers have I had an order supplied in full and within a week of expected date, and these were small numbers too. Some orders never arrived, poor mating conditions cited as reason, and one June order rolled up in September...or rather I told them I could not use them when they told me they were ready to send about 10th Sept.
Also have discussed matters with other breeders/producers. (We had 1400 queens and have 630 nucs overwintering for use and sale so are at the sharp end on this.) The reality is that when everybody wants the queens/nucs supplies (early season) they are either unavailable or very restricted in supply. When you have plentiful supplies there are few customers, as they have them themselves by that time. That's the nub of the issue when YOUR production season is exactly the same as the clients you seek to supply. Makes a viable UK breeding business pretty problematical.
Then there are UK prices....£40+ for a queen, 200 to 280 for a nuc. What is the true cost against a package or nuc in spring from the EU? My associate is paying £95 for his nucs next spring, although he has to ship them which adds another 15 pounds, so £110. You buy a UK nuc, say at 200 pounds, you have to feed it, treat it, and take wintering risks. Feeding and medication will add at least 20 pounds management costs...allow another 10...takes you to 230..and then allow for 10% not making it (reasonable) and you have a true cost of £255 per spring colony against £110...AND he is getting a good grade of carnica for his money. Its a no brainer on money grounds.
However, having said all that, I personally do not like importing bees on combs and do not do so. Its been done plenty however.
Those with long memories will be able to recall the Co-op thread from several years ago when the use of imported packages (even though from a very high health provenance) got a lot of flak and various UK producers were suggested to me instead. They were twice the price (or more) and without health certificates. Three of these producers supplied bees to others that year carrying foulbrood, and at least two of them supplied stock with AFB. Would have been a VERY VERY expensive bonfire. Its all a bit of a minefield.
Sorry for the long post but this is a subject that raises its head on a cyclical pattern. As someone who has invested 6 figures in home production of queens and nucs I can assure all who think otherwise that its not as easy as they think.
