Isle-of-Man, disease free hope?

[Rosti]

Sent to me by a relative, originally 15 May 10, Dail Mail. I could not find a web link to the archive. The £200m value has been wrongly attributed to honey rather than pollinated crop value but the aspect that caught my eye was the Isle of Man disease status and queen rearing / distribution comment. Anyone on here participating?

 

[Roy S]

Total pile of cobblers, We were talking about this very thing at our BKA meet at the weekend with Martin Smith, and apparently someone on the IOM decided to send some VARROA free queens from the island to a mainland beekeeper. Someone in their wisdom decided this would make good media fodder and got in touch with the press. Somewhere along the lines VARROA free became..... DISEASE FREE !!!!
The press loves doom and gloom, especially when it comes to forecasting the end of mankind.
The other thing that made me smile was the difference this will make to Global beekeeping with EIGHT queens!!!

I've seen single colonies produce more than that in one spate of swarm cells.

But hey ho the press like a good story, and never lets facts or truth stand in the way eh?

 

[m100]

I could not find a web link to the archive.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pers-keeping-tradition-alive-named-HONEY.html