Here come comes Hive Beetle !

[sipa]

It now seems that Bee Equipment is going to be importing nucs for resale (bees on frames) from Puglia Italy.

Not someting I'm keen on.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It now seems that Bee Equipment is going to be importing nucs for resale (bees on frames) from Puglia Italy.

Not someting I'm keen on.

Yes spotted that.
“No beetle reported in the area” according to their advertising

 

[Anduril]

Around 100 miles away.

 

[foghornleghorn]

Wonder how're they getting transported, they're coming from just outside Taranto, a solid 24 hours drive to get to the UK and wait for pickup/delivery on top of that

 

[sipa]

Around 100 miles away.

Way too close for comfort !

 

[For want of a better word]

Who will buy them?

Got my Buckfasts from a beebreeder in Somerset / Exmoor, who breeds and sells his own bees
Nice gentle bees and would be productive if I did not poke them about so much!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Who will buy them?

Got my Buckfasts from a beebreeder in Somerset / Exmoor, who breeds and sells his own bees
Nice gentle bees and would be productive if I did not poke them about so much!

Moderated bees?

 

[Fusion_power]

There is a huge learning curve to manage bees with hive beetles. It can be done, but you MUST change the way you do most hive manipulation.

Hive beetles are worse in colonies in full shade. Placing hives in full all day sun discourages them just a tad. I still keep mine in the shade, but if I were keeping pure European bees, I would have problems.

Weak colonies are highly at risk. A 2 frame nucleus for example is likely to be invaded where a 3 frame nuc is less likely and a full size colony with bees covering all combs will have beetles, but they won't normally lay eggs.

Any disruption of a colony can trigger beetles to lay eggs. This includes brood nest inspections. This is not an issue for large colonies. Make a point to open colonies only when it is needed. Most of what you need to know about a colony of bees can be judged by watching the entrance. A smaller nuc made up with a queen cell is at risk. This especially applies if a nuc is made up in such a way that they wind up with very few field bees. Mating nucs as are commonly used today will be slimed!

Storing equipment, especially used brood frames, is risky. I've been putting my equipment in a freezer for 2 or 3 days to kill beetles and their eggs. They can be stored safely after freezing.

Do not under any conditions move a frame with beetle larva to a healthy colony. The frame carries pheromones that trigger every beetle in the area to move to that colony and lay eggs. Don't even freeze a frame and then return it to a colony. This used to be standard treatment for combs with wax moths. It is severely damaging with hive beetles.

If beetles lay eggs in a hive, that hive will almost always perish. I have had exactly one colony that survived with half of their combs destroyed by beetles while the bees remained on the rest of the combs. The only effective measure is to shake the bees out of the hive onto clean combs. This can be so disruptive that it just triggers another round of beetle egg laying.

You can purchase beetle traps that work up to a point. Don't expect to wipe out the beetles, but you can reduce the numbers significantly. Under some conditions, beetle traps can fill up in a few days and have to be either emptied or replaced to remain effective.

A beetle slimed hive produces thousands of beetle larva that crawl out of the hive and overwinter in the soil. The next year, you will have a huge beetle population and more problems to deal with. If a beekeeper in the area lets beetles wipe out several colonies, guess what you get to deal with next year? The beetle larvae are vulnerable when they crawl out of a hive. Chickens will eat the larvae if they can get under the hive to scratch.

Beetles are very much worse in a tropical climate. 450 km south from where I live, beekeepers have much worse problems.

Genetic tolerance of hive beetles is widespread in bees of African descent. I am using bees with a percentage of Africanized heritage because the hive beetle tolerance is so much better. I have not had a hive slimed out by beetles in 3 years which is good evidence it works. There was an obvious uptick in hive defensiveness, but I've been able to tone that down signficantly by a basic selection effort. At this point, my bees have significant mite resistance combined with decent hive beetle tolerance. You can tell a colony will be beetle resistant by the way the nurse bees cling to the comb. They are far more clingy clumping up over the brood combs. This trait is counter to many beekeeper breeding programs that emphasize selecting for bees that are easy to shake from the frames. The clinging trait is fairly common in A.M.M. colonies so beekeepers keeping them have a small advantage.

Pouring gasoline over a bottom board covered in beetle larvae is quite cathartic. Have fun with this one!

 

[For want of a better word]

It now seems that Bee Equipment is going to be importing nucs for resale (bees on frames) from Puglia Italy.

Not someting I'm keen on.

Being self righteous and only a beginner at beekeeping, why import bees when there are plenty enough made/bred in Britain?

I had no difficulty in buying 2 nucleus's last year from a local ( well Somerset) after loosing one the year before, and even that was from my Master Beekeeper acquaintance.

Is this sort of thing so controversial, to even suggest it will get me banished to the other side of the fence so to speak?

My little squadrons have settled down nicely now the cosy roofs are well strapped down.
The sea looked very rough this morning!

 

[Repwoc]

Hive beetles are worse in colonies in full shade.

'Full shade' is what we get most days :-(

 

[Beefriendly]

why import bees when there are plenty enough made/bred in Britain?!

"Home" bred queens are not available in Spring (except in overwintered Nuc's), whereas many imported queens from warmer climates are. Ours are usually around from mid to late season which is too late for many beekeepers needs.
If you want some quality genetics then you really need to look abroad at queens from their designated "Mating stations" where all mating's are controlled.
In the UK, apart from HM (who uses Br. Adams old isolated mated station) there basically aren't any due to population density. So home bred mating's are largely uncontrolled.
There are many other reasons. but hopefully that will give you a starter

 

[For want of a better word]

"Home" bred queens are not available in Spring (except in overwintered Nuc's), whereas many imported queens from warmer climates are. Ours are usually around from mid to late season which is too late for many beekeepers needs.
If you want some quality genetics then you really need to look abroad at queens from their designated "Mating stations" where all mating's are controlled.
In the UK, apart from HM (who uses Br. Adams old isolated mated station) there basically aren't any due to population density. So home bred mating's are largely uncontrolled.
There are many other reasons. but hopefully that will give you a starter

That's amazing, because the beekeeper I bought my little squadrons from said he used Dr Adams special place to mate his queens.
My mentor said I should try to buy some bees from a Scottish beekeeper who lives and breeds bees on a remote island called Colonsay but he has a long waiting list for his very special bees and I wanted some quickly to practice on, due to my own inept beekeeping skills I lost the first hive over the winter.
I would rather wait and get disease free bees than take the risk of bringing in some nasty bug from abroad.
Are all beekeepers impatient?
As a serviceman I always had to have my inoculations up to date, even Yellow fever, which is a very nasty disease.
All our equipment was thoroughly cleaned before being brought back from overseas, flight deck and cargo holds were sprayed with insecticide before we could enter UK airspace.
I am shocked to find that bees carrying this hive beetle are being imported, especially after reading the comments by FusionPower.

 

[Ian123]

Hive beetles have been in Italy since 2014! And imports have continued. I like the Fact we can import but when hive beetles arrived in Hawaii imports stopped and rightfully so. I believe imports from Italy are from areas hb is not present but rather to close for comfort. Guessing it’s rather difficult to stop another EU countries exports.......oooooh hang on

 

[Ian123]

The beekeeper you refer to is on this forum and his bees are great. Bees carrying hb are not being imported....at least that’s the idea

 

[Erichalfbee]

That's amazing, because the beekeeper I bought my little squadrons from said he used Dr Adams special place to mate his queens.
.

From Pete then.
My first replacement queen was from there.
I have had a few since

 

[Curly green finger's]

From Pete then.
My first replacement queen was from there.
I have had a few since

I've not tried any of Pete's queens yet . What are they like?
It would be interesting if he had Amm queens .

Where is my gardening friend? He's not been on here for a while.

 

[Swarm]

There is a huge learning curve to manage bees with hive beetles. It can be done, but you MUST change the way you do most hive manipulation.

Hive beetles are worse in colonies in full shade. Placing hives in full all day sun discourages them just a tad. I still keep mine in the shade, but if I were keeping pure European bees, I would have problems.

Weak colonies are highly at risk. A 2 frame nucleus for example is likely to be invaded where a 3 frame nuc is less likely and a full size colony with bees covering all combs will have beetles, but they won't normally lay eggs.

Any disruption of a colony can trigger beetles to lay eggs. This includes brood nest inspections. This is not an issue for large colonies. Make a point to open colonies only when it is needed. Most of what you need to know about a colony of bees can be judged by watching the entrance. A smaller nuc made up with a queen cell is at risk. This especially applies if a nuc is made up in such a way that they wind up with very few field bees. Mating nucs as are commonly used today will be slimed!

Storing equipment, especially used brood frames, is risky. I've been putting my equipment in a freezer for 2 or 3 days to kill beetles and their eggs. They can be stored safely after freezing.

Do not under any conditions move a frame with beetle larva to a healthy colony. The frame carries pheromones that trigger every beetle in the area to move to that colony and lay eggs. Don't even freeze a frame and then return it to a colony. This used to be standard treatment for combs with wax moths. It is severely damaging with hive beetles.

If beetles lay eggs in a hive, that hive will almost always perish. I have had exactly one colony that survived with half of their combs destroyed by beetles while the bees remained on the rest of the combs. The only effective measure is to shake the bees out of the hive onto clean combs. This can be so disruptive that it just triggers another round of beetle egg laying.

You can purchase beetle traps that work up to a point. Don't expect to wipe out the beetles, but you can reduce the numbers significantly. Under some conditions, beetle traps can fill up in a few days and have to be either emptied or replaced to remain effective.

A beetle slimed hive produces thousands of beetle larva that crawl out of the hive and overwinter in the soil. The next year, you will have a huge beetle population and more problems to deal with. If a beekeeper in the area lets beetles wipe out several colonies, guess what you get to deal with next year? The beetle larvae are vulnerable when they crawl out of a hive. Chickens will eat the larvae if they can get under the hive to scratch.

Beetles are very much worse in a tropical climate. 450 km south from where I live, beekeepers have much worse problems.

Genetic tolerance of hive beetles is widespread in bees of African descent. I am using bees with a percentage of Africanized heritage because the hive beetle tolerance is so much better. I have not had a hive slimed out by beetles in 3 years which is good evidence it works. There was an obvious uptick in hive defensiveness, but I've been able to tone that down signficantly by a basic selection effort. At this point, my bees have significant mite resistance combined with decent hive beetle tolerance. You can tell a colony will be beetle resistant by the way the nurse bees cling to the comb. They are far more clingy clumping up over the brood combs. This trait is counter to many beekeeper breeding programs that emphasize selecting for bees that are easy to shake from the frames. The clinging trait is fairly common in A.M.M. colonies so beekeepers keeping them have a small advantage.

Pouring gasoline over a bottom board covered in beetle larvae is quite cathartic. Have fun with this one!

Better off not fetching it here in the first place.

 

[sipa]

In the UK, apart from HM (who uses Br. Adams old isolated mated station) there basically aren't any due to population density. So home bred mating's are largely uncontrolled.
starter

I do wish people would stop peddling this nonsense. There are other places in the UK where controlled matings are possible.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've not tried any of Pete's queens yet . What are they like?
It would be interesting if he had Amm queens .

Where is my gardening friend? He's not been on here for a while.

I think he has Amm? Ask him?
I like his Buckfast. They have been good to great granddaughter. No aggression. Good honey producers, calm. I replace the queens when the bees get too black

 

[Beersmith]

Way too close for comfort !

I agree. I despair that we will ever learn from past mistakes. The list is very long, starting long ago with the grey squirrel, Japanese knotweed, varroa - of course - continuing with New Zealand flatworms, signal crayfish, mitten crabs and more recently ash die back and Asian hornets.

Far from being a comprehensive list that is just the headlines. In truth, it would be extremely difficult to prevent all invasive species. Do we have to make it so easy?