Bumble bee imports?

[Apiarist]

Does the UK (and Ireland) import Bumble bees, are they queens or / and colonies? If so are there numbers published like for the imports of Honey Bee Queens?

I just learned that many greenhouse, etc. operations need bumble bees to pollinate their 'under glass' (or under plastic) crops.

(I read a research article from Belgium about a new pest found on the bumble bees and potentially spreading to the wild population, which got me thinking about over here)

 

[Ian123]

Just Google there’s lots of info.


https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/18/bumblebees-honeybees-parasite-infection

 

[Apiarist]

Thank you for that, but what I really meant was that I am looking for something a bit more specific, such as what we have for Honey Bees;

here you can see for 2020 , 1. the country of origin, 2. the number of consignments, 3. the number of queens, 4. the number of packages or Nucs, ... etc.
https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/euImportReport.cfm?year=2020
and here you can see for 2021
https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/importReport.cfm?year=2021
and so on... it took a bit of searching for these pages on Beebase, and I have not been able to find something comparable for Bumble Bees, does anyone know of one?

To the best of my knowledge the Republic Of Ireland does not make this information publicly available via their websites but the information has been published in beekeeping articles with a yearly lag, so they must make this information available (presumably upon request) and therefore must also collect it to do so. I'm guessing it's going to be the same for the UK, I can always contact the UK government body to ask for this info. if it's not published online, I think it's Natural England.

 

[Wilco]

Thank you for that, but what I really meant was that I am looking for something a bit more specific, such as what we have for Honey Bees;

here you can see for 2020 , 1. the country of origin, 2. the number of consignments, 3. the number of queens, 4. the number of packages or Nucs, ... etc.
https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/euImportReport.cfm?year=2020
and here you can see for 2021
https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/public/BeeDiseases/importReport.cfm?year=2021
and so on... it took a bit of searching for these pages on Beebase, and I have not been able to find something comparable for Bumble Bees, does anyone know of one?

To the best of my knowledge the Republic Of Ireland does not make this information publicly available via their websites but the information has been published in beekeeping articles with a yearly lag, so they must make this information available (presumably upon request) and therefore must also collect it to do so. I'm guessing it's going to be the same for the UK, I can always contact the UK government body to ask for this info. if it's not published online, I think it's Natural England.

National Bee Unit/Fera should know. Think they're under APHA.