Importing package bees by the truckload?

[itma]

Rather surprised that the forum hasn't lit up with a heated discussion of this subject.

Hire a truck.
Drive to North Italy.
Load up with packages of (queenless) bees.
Drive back to UK.
Stop off in the Midlands to sell some to a beek with an Apple-pollination contract.
Who chucks them onto boxes with foundation, revives them, introduces "sourced elsewhere" Qs and bangs them out to work.

All the while the voiceover is explaining that this is necessary because of the decline in UK bees.
But it was actually being done in the line of business, as the most profitable way of operating.

Considering that the BBC TV programme that showed this was documenting the skilled work of a forum member, I'm astonished at the absence of comment.

Its still on the iPlayer - BUT ONLY until Thursday!
"Penguins on a Plane" (The Episode with the Penguins first shown 11th Sept - BBC are calling both "episode 2" Doh!) -
and skip to 22 minutes in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04hcrqs/penguins-on-a-plane-great-animal-moves-episode-2

They say -

Every day thousands of different animals are being moved around the globe on our roads, ferries and planes. Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves follows the expert handlers entrusted with transporting some of the world's most precious and challenging cargoes safely to their destinations.
With access to a range of animal transport companies, zoos and aquariums, this two-part series charts the logistical challenges of moving some of the biggest, the smallest, the most dangerous and the most delicate animals across the world.
In this episode, a flock of gentoo penguins are flown from New Zealand to Birmingham's National Sea Life Centre, requiring a high-tech, custom-built transport crate costing £40,000. With refrigeration, air filtering and even seatbelts, the 'penguin hotel' must keep the birds in peak physical condition during their 12,500-mile journey. At the West Midlands Safari Park, two-tonne hippo Pinky must be coaxed into her transport crate before her move to the south of France to take part in a breeding programme. But on the day of the move, months of preparation are at the mercy of an extremely stubborn hippo who puts the super-strong travel crate to the test.

Beekeeper Murray McGregor is importing eight million bees from Italy to provide pollinators for British fruit farmers. With bee numbers plummeting in the UK, Murray's cargo is especially precious.

My emphasis.
Your comments?

 

[wessexmario]

I'll have the first

I saw that episode, it made me think if we want to make sure SHB gets here quickly then this is how to do it.

Why can't Mr Orchard grower grow his own colonies of bees locally?
While buying in commodities like queens and colonies from abroad might make business sense, it won't if it makes us more vulnerable to imported problems.
Forcing the environment to produce more than is locally sustainable is a road to ruin. As it was, Mr Italian Beekeeper supplied a short delivery, he wasn't keeping up with the economically forced demand either.

 

[Canary Honey]

Why can't Mr Orchard grower grow his own colonies of bees locally?

Haven't seen the program yet, but its probably because they don't survive his constant chemical attacks that he uses in an attempt to get the perfectly round, identically sized unblemished fruit that shops seem to insist on.

 

[REDWOOD]

I don't know when this program was recorded but spring 2013 left a lot of commercial beekeepers short of hives for contractual pollination, if it meant keeping their business alive well who can blame them, It would be interesting to know what FERA think about it

 

[Hivemaker.]

Your comments?

There is already a thread about this.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31452

I'll have the first
I saw that episode, it made me think if we want to make sure SMH gets here quickly then this is how to do it.

What is SMH?

Why can't Mr Orchard grower grow his own colonies of bees locally?

From what? if they are all dead and many others are in the same situation.

 

[REDWOOD]

There is already a thread about this.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=31452



What is SMH?

Could it be Small Hive Beetle ?

 

[wessexmario]

Smail Hive Beetle - should have been SHB - H is next to B on the keyboard and I don't know where the M came from!

 

[itma]

I don't know when this program was recorded but spring 2013 left a lot of commercial beekeepers short of hives for contractual pollination, if it meant keeping their business alive well who can blame them, It would be interesting to know what FERA think about it

This was "8 million bees".
It was said that over the past several years he has imported "100 million bees".

Not sounding much like an emergency 'one-off'. More like a regular line of business.

 

[wessexmario]

From what? if they are all dead and many others are in the same situation.

but why are they dead and need to be replaced?

from living in monocultures and not being able to sustain adequate foraging for the hive all year around?
from the pesticides used in sustaining the monocultures?
from diseases imported from abroad?
from stress caused by being transported from location to location?

forcing more bees into an ecosystem where the previous bees have died won't magically solve the problem if we're not sure why the problem is there in the first place.

I don't pretend to know all the answers, but intuitively it doesn't feel right at all for long term sustainability.

 

[REDWOOD]

This was "8 million bees".
It was said that over the past several years he has imported "100 million bees".

Not sounding much like an emergency 'one-off'. More like a regular line of business.

160 hives or 320 nucs
2000 hives or 4000 nucs
I would like to know if these bees are checked by bee inspectors at customs, if not all the hard work that this country does trying to control disease will become unravelled in a few years, one good thing is they are packages and not bees on frames.

 

[Hivemaker.]

but why are they dead and need to be replaced?

The weather during 2012 and 2013 in most cases.

 

[wessexmario]

Are Italian varroa resistant ?

 

[Jed D]

And we wonder why Bees are in trouble....

 

[VEG]

Are Italian varroa resistant ?

resistant to bees yes

 

[richardbees]

Vote UKIP

 

[Dan Job]

I would like to know if these bees are checked by bee inspectors at customs.

Exactly my thought! They are livestock after all! I guess this is the way varroa entered our shores! Anyone for starting a petition that imported bees must spend 4 weeks in quarantine! That would stop commercial 'for profit' imports!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

And probably wreck part of the agricultural economy. Let's be real everyone 2012 weather devastated the bee population. I know of at least one beekeeper who nearly went to the wall and if it wasn't for last year's good weather and some imported bees he'd probably be stacking shelves at Tescos now.

 

[Dan Job]

Fair point but some sort if regulation on imported bees should be in place. The shipment that went over to Hereford though was only 30 colonies surely it wouldn't be difficult to get a local Beek to service his apples for those kind of numbers?!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

he was the local beek - obviously he needed more bees, I think the packages were just top ups considering the mentioned ratio of one hive per acre (I think the farm was a tad more than 30 acres.)

 

[Hivemaker.]

Fair point but some sort if regulation on imported bees should be in place.

There is regulation in place.