Declining Bee Populations

[mbc]

Australia is capable of feeding itself, we on our crowded little island would quickly starve without the vast daily tonnage of imported food, it's a shame but it's true, and it's one of the reasons Britain insists on devaluing food, it's a trade deficit thing.

 

[For want of a better word]

Yes ... well I also have a problem with the tens of thousands of tons of soil imported into the country which has lead to the potential demise of our native ash and elm trees ...

I can live with things that arrive here under their own steam - we can't really odds what nature and global warming will throw at us but ... how much restriction and testing is put on the importing of foreign honeys ...

We should be looking at how Australia handle their biosecurity - NO honey, NO Bee related products, NO bees ...

And Australia has a program of eradicating some of their imported invasive species... cats, rabbits... cane toads.
We got rid of coypu.... lets ban imports of all bees.. including the 1000000s of foreign bred bumbles used to pollinate soft fruit!

Nos da

 

[pargyle]

And Australia has a program of eradicating some of their imported invasive species... cats, rabbits... cane toads.
We got rid of coypu.... lets ban imports of all bees.. including the 1000000s of foreign bred bumbles used to pollinate soft fruit!

Nos da

Trouble is ... as a Nation we seem to be have been very agreeable about letting anything onto our little island from just about anywhere ... and yet we can't send the things we produce to other places ....who deny us access.

 

[Apiarisnt]

... it's hard enough for our commercial beekeepers to make a living and for us hobbyists to keep our customers on track without potentialy introducing them to 'better tasting' foreign imports ...

!

British commercial beekeepers might learn something from the way that some of these foreign chappies manage to work with each other to coordinate their activities, branding, presentation, distribution and marketing. Par exemple: http://www.miels-de-provence.com/

 

[Beefriendly]

and yet we can't send the things we produce to other places ....who deny us access.

Ahead of your time PG...we are still in the EU. Free market and all that..

 

[Blacky50]

British commercial beekeepers might learn something from the way that some of these foreign chappies manage to work with each other to coordinate their activities, branding, presentation, distribution and marketing. Par exemple: http://www.miels-de-provence.com/

As New Zealand beekeepers did with a rather bad tasting honey from some plant called Manuka.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

glad I found this -

 

[B+.]

lets ban imports of all bees..

Think it through...where would you get your New Zealand Aml from if imports were banned?

 

[madasafish]

lets ban imports of all bees..
Nos da

Yes Please do. I want to sell queens at £50 in summer and £100 in spring.

 

[For want of a better word]

Think it through...where would you get your New Zealand Aml from if imports were banned?

Exceptions of course for research purposes!

( but only if you have passed the new certification in bee breeding by the BBKA!!!).... NOT !!

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

Exceptions of course for research purposes!

( but only if you have passed the new certification in bee breeding by the BBKA!!!).... NOT !!

It would have been so much easier if I'd lied

 

[REDWOOD]

It's not all rubbish, or cheap.
We run a fairtrade stall.
The honey we sell is organic too and so has jumped through both sets of hoops!
It's from individual countries and often good enough to be certified as from an individual crop.
It's more expensive than the local honey.
To be honest it's better than the Himalayan Balsam rich stuff we get round here!
Heresy I know!

Personally I prefer the taste of HB to Rape honey, however I think the majority of honey in this neck of the woods comes from blackberry, dandelion, clover, heather and flowering shrubs and trees, my bees are sat right amongst HB and often ignore it for richer pickings, only just before the ivy starts flowering will they work it profusely.

 

[Poly Hive]

I came across a figure a couple of weeks ago suggesting something in the order of 40% less than thirty years ago. Colonies this is. I cannot now find it but have found this:http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3896/IBRA.1.49.1.02

This what caught my eye. The University of Reading research found there was a 54 per cent decline in managed honey bee populations in England between 1985 and 2005 compared to an average of 20 per cent across Europe.
It comes as separate research in France suggested the reason bee numbers are falling is because of intensive agriculture that has led to a fall in the number of wild flowers and plants.
Dr Potts, from the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, requested official data from 18 countries on honey bee colony numbers.
In England the bee population fell from 182,000 colonies in 1965 to 179,000 in 1985, to 83,000 today.
England had the most dramatic fall followed by Sweden, Germany and Austria. Scotland suffered a 15 per cent loss in the last two decades and Wales lost 23 per cent of colonies.

PH

 

[Hivemaker.]

In England the bee population fell from 182,000 colonies in 1965 to 179,000 in 1985, to 83,000 today.

And between 85 and today varroa also arrived and, lots of beekeepers simply giving up.

 

[Poly Hive]

Precisely. And not just the beekeepers, Steele and Brodie quit too.

I wonder what Mike went on to do?

Talking of old names anyone know what Mathew Allan is doing?

PH

 

[Erichalfbee]

And between 85 and today varroa also arrived and, lots of beekeepers simply giving up.

And SHB lurking in the wings might just tip a few more over?

my bees are sat right amongst HB and often ignore it for richer pickings, only just before the ivy starts flowering will they work it profusely.

Mine do exactly the same.HB out for weeks before they bothered then frantic activity for a couple of weeks

 

[Poly Hive]

Ah location location.

Mine have been working the HB for oh 6 weeks or more. And given supers of honey.

PH

 

[Swarm]

Your bees probably had little else, they will ignore it if they have access to another source.
Witnessed it earlier this year along a lane where there was Balsam, behind that mostly spent Bramble and then the hedge. Where were the Honey Bees? On the Bramble, the only activity on the Balsam were a few Bumbles. Fast forward a few weeks to the gap between Willow Herb and Ivy and and they took advantage of what was left of the Balsam, which flowered very early this year. There's still Balsam available, but they prefer the Ivy now.

 

[Poly Hive]

Of course Swarm, they work to their best advantage.

PH

 

[For want of a better word]

Your bees probably had little else, they will ignore it if they have access to another source.
Witnessed it earlier this year along a lane where there was Balsam, behind that mostly spent Bramble and then the hedge. Where were the Honey Bees? On the Bramble, the only activity on the Balsam were a few Bumbles. Fast forward a few weeks to the gap between Willow Herb and Ivy and and they took advantage of what was left of the Balsam, which flowered very early this year. There's still Balsam available, but they prefer the Ivy now.

Again this season a mass of Rose Bay Willow Herb... ( fireweed to those in the frozen Tundra) and bees ignoring it... heading for the stink weed ( wild carrot/0 instead....
reason... once again the RBWH nectaries were empty ( UoP botanist told me)
Probably all the herbicides that have been persisting in the soil... no wonder we have fewer bees!

As Granma used to say... As you sow ye shall reap!

Thanks Cornwall council et al for all those years of spraying the verges!

Silent Spring again?

Nos da