Here come comes Hive Beetle !

[Swarm]

I'm not getting at anyone in particular, but, when you deride imports, you have to stop driving imported cars/stop eating imported food/stop going on foreign holidays/etc etc etc....the list is pretty much endless.
The best way to prevent incursion by unwanted pests is to be vigilant and work together. p-ing people off isn't the way to get their co-operation

I bet I do less air miles than your queens
Yes, pests can and do hitch a ride but far more likely to arrive on a live host. Why bring in queens from a country with SHB? Far better than saying we can control it would be to cross that country off the list.

 

[mbc]

I bet I do less air miles than your queens
Yes, pests can and do hitch a ride but far more likely to arrive on a live host. Why bring in queens from a country with SHB? Far better than saying we can control it would be to cross that country off the list.

Quite!
Weaver queens from the US are amongst the best for varroa resistance apparently, could be down to African genes though, should I be allowed to import a few breeder queens to jump start a project? Or should commonsence prevail and some restrictions apply?

 

[B+.]

I bet I do less air miles than your queens
Yes, pests can and do hitch a ride but far more likely to arrive on a live host. Why bring in queens from a country with SHB? Far better than saying we can control it would be to cross that country off the list.

My point was that modern life depends on global value chains so it's difficult to disentangle who makes what. Of course, that is less so with honeybees but there is a demand for early queens that we just can't satisfy here. If anyone wanted to overwinter a large number of queens to try to capitalize on this demand, they would need quite a lot of investment in capital equipment to do it.
Speaking for myself, I don't have Italian queens so it's a bit of an academic question as far as I'm concerned. I follow the advice of the National Bee Unit though and inspect all cages/packaging thoroughly.
As far as I am aware, SHB has been confirmed in one area of Italy. Banning the whole of Italy would be like banning the whole of the UK if something was found in one county. It's not rational.

 

[Ian123]

Quite!
Weaver queens from the US are amongst the best for varroa resistance apparently, could be down to African genes though, should I be allowed to import a few breeder queens to jump start a project? Or should commonsence prevail and some restrictions apply?

That’s rather a pointless statement you can’t import them because they have AHB and SHB and restrictions/ban is in place. Common sense has clearly prevailed, we can however import from approved countries. As to SHB arriving on queens the nbu itself describes its arrival in caged queens as “highly unlikely” I suggest you check out the use of the sentinel apiaries near ports, airports.

 

[Ian123]

https://botanicgarden.wales/wp-cont...KA_News_-_Sentinel_project_July_2012_-_p8.pdf

 

[Lancs Lad]

I'm not getting at anyone in particular, but, when you deride imports, you have to stop driving imported cars/stop eating imported food/stop going on foreign holidays/etc etc etc....the list is pretty much endless.
The best way to prevent incursion by unwanted pests is to be vigilant and work together. p-ing people off isn't the way to get their co-operation

Australia imports all manner of goods and from your list above they drive imported cars, food, they go on foreign holidays they allow foreign visitors in and as you say the list is endless.

How have they stayed Varroa free ?

 

[B+.]

Australia imports all manner of goods and from your list above they drive imported cars, food, they go on foreign holidays they allow foreign visitors in and as you say the list is endless.

How have they stayed Varroa free ?

Time will tell how long they are able to maintain that varroa-free status. When, not if, varroa eventually gets in it will devastate their bees which will have no protection at all.

 

[Ian123]

Australia imports all manner of goods and from your list above they drive imported cars, food, they go on foreign holidays they allow foreign visitors in and as you say the list is endless.

How have they stayed Varroa free ?

Lol..They have stayed varroa free but not SHB free..........rather proves b+ point wouldn’t you say they also have very tight bee import regs. So not really helped there.

 

[Ian123]

https://www.aussiebee.com.au/small_hive_beetle.htmlas an aside and to the effectiveness of bans the U.K. had a ban Ireland had a ban so to NZ and Hawaii Varroa still arrived to the best of my knowledge not through any legal imports.

 

[Ely]

Where on mainland UK can you guarantee you can leave a shed load of virgins to fly around that don't get mated?

Any university school of Computing

 

[For want of a better word]

Any university school of Computing

 

[Hebeegeebee]

There must be other places to get packages from, rather than Italy. As it is, if the packages arrive and a SBI sees a small hive beetle, well, it's too late. And the spread of SHB in Italy occurred more recently as beekeepers moved bees when they shouldn't have done, I guess because they "thought it would be OK" or "no one would notice". It's not difficult to do.
At the moment, I don't think the govt could ban imports from the EU so we are playing Russian Roulette and have to stick to the rules (yes, yes, I know that other don't!). However we could voluntarily not import bees from somewhere close to a danger-zone. And beekeepers could voluntarily not buy from some suppliers.

 

[madasafish]

A ban on imports will not work when there are illegal shipments from Eire to N Ireland which are known about - and not prevented..(According to a BI who spoke at our Association 2 years ago)..

 

[foghornleghorn]

A ban on imports will not work when there are illegal shipments from Eire to N Ireland which are known about - and not prevented..(According to a BI who spoke at our Association 2 years ago)..

Black bees?

 

[madasafish]

Black bees?

He was not specific..

 

[Swarm]

Hearsay then?

 

[foghornleghorn]

Hearsay then?

Some of the most vocal against imports into Ireland were also the biggest exporters for a time (no idea if that's still the case). It was never possible to get health certificates issued for bees in Ireland.

 

[mbc]

I think if I lived on the emerald isle I'd be even more adamant that imports were a damaging and harmful practice with the wealth of Amm they have remaining.
To an admirer of our native bees it seems almost sacrilegious to endanger pure breeding, free flying populations of Amm for the transient smash and grab honey crop of a few.

 

[foghornleghorn]

I think if I lived on the emerald isle I'd be even more adamant that imports were a damaging and harmful practice with the wealth of Amm they have remaining.
To an admirer of our native bees it seems almost sacrilegious to endanger pure breeding, free flying populations of Amm for the transient smash and grab honey crop of a few.

Beekeeping with pure amm and little to no influence from imports doesn't result in the utopia that you suggest it would

 

[mbc]

Beekeeping with pure amm and little to no influence from imports doesn't result in the utopia that you suggest it would

Beekeeping utopias are always at the end of a rainbow, it's the potential to work towards one, unfettered by continual genetic flux that excites me.
The grass is always greener but from what I see the closest to beekeeping utopia that would fit with us is what the Germans have achieved, we could never do this with carnies though as open matings would always lead to crosses, if we made similar gains with Amm we could have a situation as close to utopia as I can envisage with beekeepers across the land being able to access quality bees and open mate them and retain the gains in a sustainable fashion.