Import of NZ bees into UK

[Somerford]

Tricia

Prior to burning the bees by sulphur fumes, the old skep was turned upside down and a new skep held over the top, then the beekeeper would 'drum' on the sides and drive the bees into the new skep which would be placed on the old site, then the old skep would be fumigated.

Alternatively, they waited until a swarm emerged and hived that in a new skep/location

regards and welcome to the debate

Somerford

 

[MJBee]

Hi Somerford, The French equivalent of the BBKA have adopted the slogan " The Bee, guardian of the environment" and produced stickers in various sizes to wear or put on honey jars - was this the sort of thing you were thinking of?

 

[Somerford]

yes, but with more info, and more about the fact the honey is made by British Bred Bees, not imports !

S

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Hi Somerford, The French equivalent of the BBKA have adopted the slogan " The Bee, guardian of the environment" and produced stickers in various sizes to wear or put on honey jars - was this the sort of thing you were thinking of?

Like it!

 

[Hivemaker.]

yes, but with more info, and more about the fact the honey is made by British Bred Bees, not imports !


Is there any specific strain of bee needed to fit in with this idea?

 

[greatbritishhoney]

As someone who sells a range of british honey from different producers I would say you would need to get any beekeepers interested in selling honey from "british" bees to contract-in to any scheme you may set up. Without a proper contract you would not be able to ensure the provenance of the honey and thus would affect the integrity of the scheme.

It's a good idea though, would just need to be really tight on making sure your product is exactly what it claims to be.
What you really need is a large backer (the co-op??? haha)

 

[Stiffy]

As someone who sells a range of british honey from different producers I would say you would need to get any beekeepers interested in selling honey from "british" bees to contract-in to any scheme you may set up. Without a proper contract you would not be able to ensure the provenance of the honey and thus would affect the integrity of the scheme.

It's a good idea though, would just need to be really tight on making sure your product is exactly what it claims to be.
What you really need is a large backer (the co-op??? haha)

Or British National Party.....sorry couldnt resist!

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I can just see Nick Griffin with an "I support Black Bees" badge!!

 

[Friar Tuck]

What about the English Defence League

we could have the British Bee Defence League

 

[Friar Tuck]

I can just see Nick Griffin with an "I support Black Bees" badge!!

rasta bee

 

[RoseCottage]

And that's the nub of the challenge really...

I have a couple of docile, isolated ish, hives that have queens from Th**nes. Last year one was superceded by a young queen. Exactly what type of bees she's producing is hard to confirm. They are very docile so probably she mated with my drones..?

I am a local producer of honey, I am trying to take the utmost care of my bees, and as they produce new queens (all within a corner of a field that is forever their England) I am left wondering whether I could use the logo.

I called Th**nes to ask them to identify my queen's source and they couldn't at the time do this. Even if they could tell me she was a 'foreign' breed of queen she was reared in England. All her offspring are Hampshire through and through.

So considering that the true British bee is nearly gone and replaced by hybrids of varying shades of grey who would qualify?


I produce honey and sell it within 3 miles of my hives. how genuinely local do I need to be to qualify for a British bee logo?

If I want to take part what do I need to be able to demonstrate? If it is voluntary then it will be abused by those who import queens knowingly or perhaps otherwise (i cannot say that I conform even) as they won't want to be left out.

Sam

 

[b2bnz]

The bees we have in New Zealand are of the Italian and Carniolan strain. They are very easy to work and extremely calm. We have had British Beekeepers at our club days and they are amazed at how docile are bees are. Many of our experienced beekeepers work their bees without veil or gloves.
We do have varroa but do NOT have small hive beetle.
We do not import anything from Australia, not even their commercially packed honey.
I am sure that you will be getting the very best NZ can offer.

 

[Norton]

Hello,
Why do you not import honey from Australia? What reason is there.

Are you aware that queens are bred in Greece and exported to New Zealand - couple of thousand of them by all accounts!
http://www.melichrysos.gr/members.html
It is in Greek but you can do an Internet translation. Look down the page for Robert Taylor and Peter Jones.
Also:
http://www.melichrysos.gr/skeps2.html
http://www.melichrysos.gr/otherprod.html
Look for the word
ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΕΣ
From this website it appears that these queens have been exported to NZ for years - so how can NZ claim to have NOT imported bees for the last 40 years???

 

[hedgerow pete]

i am off the mind set that the amm should bee seen in the same context as say a glouster old spot pig is seen towards its large white competition. you are never going to get the whole of the uk back to black bees but you can stave off extinction.

does there exist a good election of amm stock, yes
was brother adam wrong, yes
why use AI, because its easier than them doing it.

i like the label idea, rather than pinning it to one breed or area, we could pin it to say a belief, that we are doing the best posible way and effort for the bees

 

[Tom Bick]

The bees we have in New Zealand are of the Italian and Carniolan strain. They are very easy to work and extremely calm. We have had British Beekeepers at our club days and they are amazed at how docile are bees are. Many of our experienced beekeepers work their bees without veil or gloves.
We do have varroa but do NOT have small hive beetle.
We do not import anything from Australia, not even their commercially packed honey.
I am sure that you will be getting the very best NZ can offer.

Hi bsbnz nice to get a comment from New Zealand

I don’t think anyone is saying bees that this thread are referring to from New Zealand will have any disease as such although how can we be a 100% confident that’s the case.
I think the crutch of the argument is what will happen to the gene pool of that area when 300 packages of bees headed with your and I know lovely docile orange queens arrive.
Its just that in this country we have had bad experiences with the 1st and 2nd generation of your queens and on occasion the new queens producing bees not un similar to Nazis. This has led to people having to re queen every year and not to take the risk of a bad mating and as such dependant on imports.

 

[Haughton Honey]

does there exist a good election of amm stock, yes

I'd like to know exactly where they are and exactly what the definition of an AMM is......both from a DNA and wing measurement perspective.

 

[Norton]

Why don't you ask the experts at BIBBA!

 

[Haughton Honey]

Why don't you ask the experts at BIBBA!

Because they haven't a clue perhaps?

 

[Norton]

No comment!

 

[Skyhook]

B2BNZ- welcome to the forum! One of the good things about it is the range of perspectives you get. We have members from Finland, France and Bulgaria among others, but I'm not aware of any NZ beeks.

By the way, you can get the odd bit of plain speaking on here- don't let it put you off!