Live package bees from Western Australia

[madasafish]

Don't be silly.
With no natural immunity to varroa, any imported colonies would last at best two seasons.. No chance of them taking over. from locally adapted bees.

Would not touch them- or any offspring.

edit: and any local supplier mad enough to sell them would face claims for compensation as "not fit for purpose"

 

[Wilco]

Don't be silly.
With no natural immunity to varroa, any imported colonies would last at best two seasons.. No chance of them taking over. from locally adapted bees.

Would not touch them- or any offspring.

edit: and any local supplier mad enough to sell them would face claims for compensation as "not fit for purpose"

To be pedantic.. It's not that they won't have any natural resistance to it, just that such traits wouldn't have been selected for so will likely be present at a lower prevalence in the population relative to areas where varroa has been endemic for some time. End result is the same.

Not sure how resistant the UK population is anyway- varroa management is needed by all, even those that are 'treatment' free but I'll leave that issue to another thread. SHB, self sufficiency and carbon miles etc. are the bigger issue here in my view.

 

[westausthoney]

Perhaps when Australia opens up their markets for British Honey or Queens we might be a tad more receptive.































































































































British honey is always welcome in Australia. Entry into Western Australia requires heat treatment.































































































































The free trade agreement between Australia and the UK will remove most barriers.































































Western Australia sent most of the honey produced to the before the UK

Forgive me for asking, but - are you hoping to get a lions share of the UK live bee market and thus put our own local, well known and trusted bee suppliers - your perceived competition, out of business?

Call me a cynic if you wish! I would agree with you if you do!
If this goes ahead, I can see Australian bees flooding the UK market.
Our current UK bee producers would be forced out of business causing the UK to then rely on Australian and other imports.
This will radically increase the chances of undesirable diseases and pests being introduced to the UK.
Then, either an economic downturn or legislation suddenly prevents Australian (and other) bees reaching the UK.
Where does that leave us when we need honey? Oh yes!, lets now completely forget keeping bees and just
import Australian honey!!
No thank you!!

Australia is a vast rambling country. In comparison the UK is a close knit community.
Stick around on this Forum and you will see that for yourself!

Why on earth should anyone want to send bees halfway around the world unless it is to 'Corner the market' and put your competition out of business? It certainly won't be for altruistic purposes.

We, my family buy as much as we possibly can from local shops and ONLY buy online items we CANNOT purchase locally. We know we pay a little more but we are supporting the local shops and businesses which we NEED.

The phrase "Use it or Lose It" is very apt.

The UK has already lost too much production to other cheap foreign imports!

As has already been suggested to you by others here - go and peddle your bees elsewhere.

Kind regards,

Malcolm B.

Hi Malcolm
Thank you for your comments.
I am a fourth generation beekeeper living and working in the south west of Western Australia.
We have been able to send bees to Canada for nearly 20 years because we don't have small hive Beatles, the closest hives with hive Beatles are 2500 kms away. Yes our boarders have been closed since 1976 and have kept out many pests and diseases affecting every other beekeeping industry in the world .
The UK hive loss over winter appears to be around 30% . Western Australia and Tasmania are the only Australian states who have exported live bees to Canada for nearly 20 years , being hive Beatles free .
Our industry is very small and close knit like yours ,there is no possibility we could supply what was previously coming from the EU countries , around 5,000 packages per year.
I have indicated that we want to work with and help local suppliers of nukes and live bees . the demand for live bees is increasing.
New Zealand have already sent live bees to the UK , they are another 6 hours away by air than Western Australia.
I understand your concerns about imports of cheap low grade honey, unfortunately Australia imports on average 5000 tonnes of cheap honey from China, South America and India that is having a huge impact on Australian Honey prices.
Before the UK joined the EU , A Western Australian co op, Wesccobee exported around 60% of WA honey production to the UK .
Our intention is to work harmoniously with the UK beekeeping industry . Return some bee genetics we took from the UK 170 years ago and help each other

 

[hemo]

They will be stoped or quarantined one would hope for SHB , as they would come from western Aus which has SHB. One also assumes exp /imp licences required so Fera should get involved and stop the process.

 

[pargyle]

Thank you for your comments. Much appreciated.

It will be a tough sell in the UK ... we caught a bad cold when Varroa arrived in the 1980's. Small hive beetle has arrived in Italy where some stocks came from. The Asian Hornet continues to hop across the Channel from France and is likely to become more prevalent as our climate warms. American Crayfish are decimating our own species. We have Dutch Elm disease in our Elm Trees from importing soil and a whole host of alien, invasive, species that threaten our environment. . It makes us very cautious and rather anti any other potential sources of disease, predator or parasite. Australia has been very protectionist and I applaud that stance - it's a pity that the UK was not as careful or vigilant.

You might find a Bee Supplies House who would talk to you but the UK is not big on bee packages - the vast majority of bee purchases are framed nuclei and even imports of bees from our near neighbours in Europe are viewed with a degree of concern. Queen purchases are more common in the UK but even these are bred for our local climate and conditions.

I rather doubt that it would be a business selling directly into UK Beekeepers and there are only a relatively small number of Bee Supply Houses in the UK. So, good luck ..

 

[Ian123]

Hi Westaus……This forum is mainly amateurs although there are some suppliers of bees and queens about. You’ll be far better off directing any enquiry or advertising to the British Bee Farmers Association, a quick Google will give you the relevant contact details.
Your obviously after a lager scale operation that would be capable of taking hundreds of packages and moving them on.
There you will find people with experience in importing and aware of the regulations.

For everyone else who’s not aware Western Aus may as well be a separate country or in European terms about 10 separate countries.There are currently imports of queens/bees from locations far closer to actual SHB areas!!!!!! Than Western Aus….Someone else can do the Google research but I’d guess he is about 2000 KM further away from Small hive beatles than some Italian imports

As to the bees I’ve found some quite good 1s from NZ before and 1 individual dig have some western Aus queens in the past, I don’t think they did great and a bit prone to chalk brood, as even indeed the NZ queens tended to be. That’s probably the AMM coming out
As to varroa tolerance, newly infected areas do appear to have large die offs. So I probably wouldn’t rush. However whilst queen imports into AUS are very restricted I believe sperm is less of a hassle? So a determined exporter/breeder could offer pretty much anything they like!
Much like the NZ beeks breeding carniolans when they did not allow imports!
As for the local bees and environment….. Good bees are very adaptable. Good breeders/suppliers will supply bees and genetics’ suitable for the customers. Finsky had Italian bees with his reindeer and Italian genetics/bees have been going to Canada for many decades.

We of course in the UK will favour our special local bees and only bees from the same village will do

Sorry just being sensible

 

[Erichalfbee]

BEETLES
not

 

[The Poot]

BEETLES
not

View attachment 37113

Hurrah! You got there before me!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hurrah! You got there before me!

It was driving me nuts!

 

[Newbeeneil]

It was driving me nuts!

Ah, but are they the small hive type?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

we don't have small hive Beatles

yeah yeah yeah

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Australia imports on average 5000 tonnes of cheap honey from China, South America and India

and then sell it on as 'Australian' honey

 

[ericbeaumont]

been able to send bees to Canada for nearly 20 years

There used to be - maybe still is - a fashion in Canada to terminate colonies at summer's end and buy packages in spring to start anew. Fair enough: saves the hard work of getting colonies through severe winters, saves money, saves labour.

In response, a package industry developed - Florida comes to mind - to supply Canadian beekeepers the necessary, and it's clear that Aus beefarmers also saw a business opportunity to complement a practical (but ethically dubious) style of beekeeping.

UK beekeepers are quite a different proposition: nearly all amateur & with a love of nature, most keeping bees without the need to make them pay, many with a post-Brexit suspicion of imported anything, let alone honeybees.

The UK agri authorities agreed, banning the import of nucs & packages from Europe when the Brexit gates closed.

These two markets - UK & Canada - are sufficiently different and ought to persuade an Australian number-cruncher to think again about the viability of such a plan, but even if it were so, the environmental impact of transporting bees across the globe should make it (in my view) a non-starter.

We're in a different world than we were when packages were first flown from Western Australia to Canada, a time when no real concern had been given to carbon miles or global warming.

Compare this proposal with the global export of manuka, a honey which has been over-promoted and faked and has entered the average mind as worth the extra charged. Medical-grade manuka, I agree, is a fine and effective product, but at market here in North London, when asked for manuka (as if!) I give customers the unavoidable: no matter how good you believe manuka to be, do you think importation is justifiable, given the impact 3,500 carbon miles to do so will have on our environment?

The inescapable answer is obvious and usually leads to a conversation about local food, the health consequences of cheap food, food authenticity and the value we (mis)place on food.

The import of package bees 3,500 miles distant is no different: it can be done, but should it? We all have a small part to play in reducing global human impact, and in that context, the unnecessary import of honey bees would instead throw another lump of coal on the fire of environmental catastrophe.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

no matter how good you believe manuka to be, do you think importation is justifiable

never mind the fact that there is no evidence, not even in a book written by a New Zealander and extolling its virtues (an interesting read BTW - gifted to me by a fellow forumite Amazon.co.uk )pointing at eating the damned stuff being of no more benefit than putting jam on your toast

 

[Erichalfbee]

never mind the fact that there is no evidence, not even in a book written by a New Zealander and extolling its virtues (an interesting read BTW - gifted to me by a fellow forumite Amazon.co.uk )pointing at eating the damned stuff being of no more benefit than putting jam on your toast

Yes I should imagine anything useful might be rendered useless by stomach acid?
There’s always the adage that the worse something tastes the better it is for you?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There’s always the adage that the worse something tastes the better it is for you?

I can't believe that being true about Kale

 

[ericbeaumont]

book written by a New Zealander

Yes, a good read that puts in perspective the whole story.

NZ has a history of boom and bust exports - kiwi fruit was one - where vast sums made early slumped as a consequence of market saturation.

Chasing money brings out the worst in people: Honey wars: crime and killings in New Zealand's booming manuka industry and The 'cut-throat' industry of New Zealand beekeeping

 

[JamezF]

Yes I should imagine anything useful might be rendered useless by stomach acid?

Depends what one means by "anything useful", I guess. Clearly lots of things aren't rendered useless, otherwise we'd not get all the vitamins and other essentials for life that are in the food we eat.

Given that the human gut is full of bacteria that make a significant contribution to our health however, I'm not entirely sure that eating something that claims to be "anti-bacterial" makes a great deal of sense in the first place. I've no idea if it's true or not as I never found the original research, but I've read that after completing a course of penicillin it can take months, perhaps even more than a year, to rebuild the levels of gut bacteria to those present before taking the drug.

James

 

[sipa]

The beekeeping market in the UK is pretty small by comparison to Canada and the US, and is already well serviced by domestic suppliers offering quality local bee stocks. The market for packages is not well developed here and those that do arrive largely go to commercial outfits who use them to bolster existing stocks or split and grow on to produce nucs to sell on.

At your price point, you won't find any takers who run bees commercially, you would need to halve it to garner any interest at all, even before considering all of the other implications already discussed here in detail.
Sorry to bring you bad news, but your business plan isn't going to work here.
Good luck in developing markets elsewhere.

 

[Gingerbread]

Hmmm. Bees are considered livestock over here.
Australia is not able to export livestock to the UK. The only 2 possible routes open are New Zealand (who have banned livestock entering from Australia) and via Canada.
Dare I suggest you are actually looking to ship to the UK via Canada, or possibly be breeding in Canada, then exporting from there to the UK.
Keep your stock where people want it...Australia, and Canada