Imports of nucs and packages

[gavin]

Ah, thanks John. There is an explicit derogation for NZ packages. That makes sense as the people organising the importing and the officials overseeing it are not the kind of folk to make such a basic mistake.

G.

From the document cited above:

9. Imports of bees from eligible third countries are restricted to consignments of queen bees and attendant workers only (except New Zealand). Each queen bee must be contained in a single cage and accompanied by no more than 20 attendant worker bees. Packages or single colonies of bumble bees (a maximum of 200 adult bees per container) are permitted provided that they are bred under environmentally controlled conditions within recognised establishments.

11. Commission Decision 2006/855/EC permits the import of queen honey and bumble bees and packaged honey and bumble bees under a derogation which has been agreed under the EU/NZ Veterinary Agreement. Imported consignments must be accompanied by an original health certificate modelled on Annex VI of the Decision and signed by the relevant authorities in New Zealand. The conditions laid down in the certificate are at Annex B.

 

[Norton]

So the information on the DEFRA site is outdated?

 

[Chris B]

Roger,
I think they've conveniently not included the NZ derogation. They probably aren't keen on people knowing about it.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I may be missing something obvious but the importation of bees from third countries is permitted, subject to various rules. The enclosed Fera document lists these third countries, which are on page 7. It is dated 2009 so may not be up to date - for example Hawaii is included, which is now not the case.

thanks roof tops, I read that as, you can import packages of bees from new Zealand

"Imports of bees from eligible third countries are restricted to consignments of queen bees and attendant workers only (except New Zealand). Each queen bee must be contained in a single cage and accompanied by no more than 20 attendant worker bees. Packages or single colonies of bumble bees (a maximum of 200 adult bees per container) are permitted provided that they are bred under environmentally controlled conditions within recognised establishments"


do they fly upside down

 

[Norton]

The official line in New Zeakand is that they have not imported live bees for years. They got Varroa anyhow.

This webiste however says something very different in that thousands of queens produced in Greece are exported to New Zealand every year. So, is their biosecurity so tight?
http://www.melichrysos.gr/otherprod.html
It's in Greek but just do a page translation.
Best regards
Norton.