Bee imports post IWD

[foghornleghorn]

Stirring isnt consistent with the conversation i had, he was after all telling me how he does not feel resented within FIBKA for being a Buckfast keeper.
On top of outcrossing, you are ignoring the fact that it seems thst demand often outstrips supply where queens are concerned

There really isn't massive demand for queens here. Could count on one hand the amount of people who'd have over 100 queens a year for sale. Really all that the market here could support is one or two hundred queens a year in small batches spread across a few differemt sellers or else it would be obvious. But there wouldn't be much of a margin to be made so I don't see why anyone would bother, more profitable to rear and sell your own unless you can get cheap queens which would be hard with amm.

 

[SDM]

There really isn't massive demand for queens here. Could count on one hand the amount of people who'd have over 100 queens a year for sale. Really all that the market here could support is one or two hundred queens a year in small batches spread across a few differemt sellers or else it would be obvious. But there wouldn't be much of a margin to be made so I don't see why anyone would bother, more profitable to rear and sell your own unless you can get cheap queens which would be hard with amm.

Plenty of Amm queens imported legally to tbe uk . Many of the big beekeeping retailers advertise them from april onwards, so no issues with the availability of cheap Amm imports. Theres been threads before on Amm from greece etc.
Plus the quantity is irrelevant. Its the proportion i had commented on.

 

[TooBee...]

Stirring isnt consistent with the conversation i had, he was after all telling me how he does not feel resented within FIBKA for being a Buckfast keeper.
On top of outcrossing, you are ignoring the fact that it seems thst demand often outstrips supply where queens are concerned

FIBKA, that's our Irish beek. assoc. ?

Do you know how many Queens, Nucs, Packages, etc. were imported into the country of Ireland last year? I'm guessing figures for Northern Ireland would be lumped in with the rest of the UK, and most imports into NI would come via the importers from Britain - so impossible to tell what the figure would be for NI.

 

[SDM]

FIBKA, that's our Irish beek. assoc. ?

Do you know how many Queens, Nucs, Packages, etc. were imported into the country of Ireland last year? I'm guessing figures for Northern Ireland would be lumped in with the rest of the UK, and most imports into NI would come via the importers from Britain - so impossible to tell what the figure would be for NI.

NI isnt included in the beebase import stats so you may find stats specific to NI
More difficult as you say will be the ones from within the U.K. as theyre counted as internal. Which all makes figuring out what ends up in the republic a bit difficult.

 

[foghornleghorn]

FIBKA, that's our Irish beek. assoc. ?

Do you know how many Queens, Nucs, Packages, etc. were imported into the country of Ireland last year? I'm guessing figures for Northern Ireland would be lumped in with the rest of the UK, and most imports into NI would come via the importers from Britain - so impossible to tell what the figure would be for NI.

Officially about 130 queens and similar enough package/hive imports so 250 altogether last year. Vast majority were highly unlikely to be amm based on where they came from and where they went to.

 

[TooBee...]

Officially about 130 queens and similar enough package/hive imports so 250 altogether last year. Vast majority were highly unlikely to be amm based on where they came from and where they went to.

Hi thanks for that.

Can you give me a Link to that info?

 

[foghornleghorn]

Hi thanks for that.

Can you give me a Link to that info?

No, don't have it on file. It was circulated somewhere over winter but can't remember where.


Edit. Maybe it was on Facebook

 

[SDM]

Is this is the link that you are thinking of ?
Remember what itld said about Spanish black colonies going cheap ? Seems they all ended up in Sligo.
I keep hearing how Dublin has a stable population but there seem to be a lot of packages going there from the Netherlands ( who buys packages from the Netherlands?)

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=htt...MDzVuoZG3mXl8iy1D47hjnPDM7PiG_2zA5yEQseC7YMzE

 

[rook66]

Is this is the link that you are thinking of ?
Remember what itld said about Spanish black colonies going cheap ? Seems they all ended up in Sligo.
I keep hearing how Dublin has a stable population but there seem to be a lot of packages going there from the Netherlands ( who buys packages from the Netherlands?)

https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=htt...MDzVuoZG3mXl8iy1D47hjnPDM7PiG_2zA5yEQseC7YMzE

Bombus spp!! Bumble bee kits for pollinating poly tunnels

 

[SDM]

Bombus spp!! Bumble bee kits for pollinating poly tunnels

Lol , yes. Couldn't see the whole page at once on my phone and missed that.

 

[MuswellMetro]

so off the web, photo of list of imported queens, surely some 15000 queens is a large enough requirement for a viable large scale breeding program in britiain rather than import, even if using imported queens

 

[Beefriendly]

Interesting, quite a smorgasbord of imports.
Is there a date for that?

 

[Into the lions den]

Interesting, quite a smorgasbord of imports.
Is there a date for that?

Its nowhere near accurate...even if its supposed to be current figures. I alone supplied 1200 *packages* out of Piemonte this year alone yet the figure for Italy is under 100. Orders for next year are already past this years total. All above board, certificated, and communicated to the NBU. There are others importing from there too.

to mbc......

Yes...you can try ro get 15000 new seasons queens going in the UK (no-one wants last summers at a decent price)........most of the market is for before the end of May btw..........and c4000 packages (before end of May too...lets be realistic about the numbers).

Then work with decent bees. (These threads show the disparity of opinion in the UK about just what 'good bees' means.)

UK queens (even our units product) are not really economical for the large customers to use. If it was UK prices the demand would be tiny. The demand is in part due to economics.

But then there is the mother of all crunches......reliability of supply.
No=one can plan or run an effective large scale unit based on UK suppliers....yes...even ourselves raising 4 figures of queens for sale.

FWIW...this posting of the queen figures...which may be cribbed from official figures but has been recycled by someone else.......turned up in my Twitter box a while ago......and it was so wrong that I did not think it worth responding to. An indignant (somewhat) posting attacking the possibility of unknown unknowns from well examined and certificated imports, and it seems really strange to me that no-one goes after the fact that UK bee trade is utterly unregulated and certificated. Not even foulbrood inspection. I suppose unknown unknowns are only a 'foreigner thingy'?

 

[Beefriendly]

Ignore me, thought it was imports post IofW disease figures that MuswellMetro was posting (AKA thread title)...I totally missed the EU bit

 

[foghornleghorn]

Its nowhere near accurate...even if its supposed to be current figures. I alone supplied 1200 *packages* out of Piemonte this year alone yet the figure for Italy is under 100. Orders for next year are already past this years total. All above board, certificated, and communicated to the NBU. There are others importing from there too.

to mbc......

Yes...you can try ro get 15000 new seasons queens going in the UK (no-one wants last summers at a decent price)........most of the market is for before the end of May btw..........and c4000 packages (before end of May too...lets be realistic about the numbers).

Then work with decent bees. (These threads show the disparity of opinion in the UK about just what 'good bees' means.)

UK queens (even our units product) are not really economical for the large customers to use. If it was UK prices the demand would be tiny. The demand is in part due to economics.

But then there is the mother of all crunches......reliability of supply.
No=one can plan or run an effective large scale unit based on UK suppliers....yes...even ourselves raising 4 figures of queens for sale.

FWIW...this posting of the queen figures...which may be cribbed from official figures but has been recycled by someone else.......turned up in my Twitter box a while ago......and it was so wrong that I did not think it worth responding to. An indignant (somewhat) posting attacking the possibility of unknown unknowns from well examined and certificated imports, and it seems really strange to me that no-one goes after the fact that UK bee trade is utterly unregulated and certificated. Not even foulbrood inspection. I suppose unknown unknowns are only a 'foreigner thingy'?

Why do people buy packages? Is it cost vs over wintered nuc

 

[MuswellMetro]

Its nowhere near accurate...even if its supposed to be current figures. I alone supplied 1200 *packages* out of Piemonte this year alone yet the figure for Italy is under 100. Orders for next year are already past this years total. All above board, certificated, and communicated to the NBU. There are others importing from there too.

to mbc......

Yes...you can try ro get 15000 new seasons queens going in the UK (no-one wants last summers at a decent price)........most of the market is for before the end of May btw..........and c4000 packages (before end of May too...lets be realistic about the numbers).

Then work with decent bees. (These threads show the disparity of opinion in the UK about just what 'good bees' means.)



UK queens (even our units product) are not really economical for the large customers to use. If it was UK prices the demand would be tiny. The demand is in part due to economics.

But then there is the mother of all crunches......reliability of supply.
No=one can plan or run an effective large scale unit based on UK suppliers....yes...even ourselves raising 4 figures of queens for sale.

FWIW...this posting of the queen figures...which may be cribbed from official figures but has been recycled by someone else.......turned up in my Twitter box a while ago......and it was so wrong that I did not think it worth responding to. An indignant (somewhat) posting attacking the possibility of unknown unknowns from well examined and certificated imports, and it seems really strange to me that no-one goes after the fact that UK bee trade is utterly unregulated and certificated. Not even foulbrood inspection. I suppose unknown unknowns are only a 'foreigner thingy'?

think we saw the same twitter feeds as i sourced it from there, and bow to your superior knowledge, first source i swa showed more of the trustee's name so thought i could trust the accuracy...but then can we every trust that organization to get it right

 

[beebopper]

Why do people buy packages? Is it cost vs over wintered nuc

I guess that would be it - most things come down to cost & availability.

 

[Jimmy]

Why do people buy packages? Is it cost vs over wintered nuc

Lower disease risk as there is no brood.

 

[MuswellMetro]

ITLD reports he import 1200 packages ,

yet the figures i quoted i have now traced direct to the NBU on the NBU web site under EU import Report, so they are the official import figures of queens and packages

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/euImportReport.cfm

so whats going on, why is the NBU reporting so few imports and ITLD imports not showing up???

 

[beebopper]

ITLD reports he import 1200 packages ,

yet the figures i quoted i have now traced direct to the NBU on the NBU web site under EU import Report, so they are the official import figures of queens and packages

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/euImportReport.cfm

so whats going on, why is the NBU reporting so few imports and ITLD imports not showing up???

An interesting question. I guess many imports/exports are simply not reported.