- Joined
- Jul 23, 2013
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- 1,778
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- Location
- East Midlands
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- some + a few more
Importation of non-native bees after this population crash is reported to also have had a large impact with the first organized importation of bees recorded in the Republic of Ireland in 1923, when skeps of Dutch bees (A. m. mellifera) were brought in large numbers especially to Co. Wexford. In 1927 under a Department of Agriculture and technical instruction restocking scheme, 15 County Committees of Agriculture imported Dutch skeps.
The bees from Jensen et al. (2005) were sampled from GBBG and corroborated the records maintained by the group in that they derived from the population existing in Ireland in the 1920s as well as those imported from the Netherlands after the Isle of Wight disease (Mac Giolla Coda, personal communication, 2016). So, the large numbers of bees similar to the Dutch type detected here reflect the significant imports by beekeepers from the Netherlands after the loss of managed colonies during Isle of Wight disease. Here mitochondrial data coincides with evidence described in the grey literature and by word of mouth. Whether the same levels of Dutch haplotypes will be present in a wider sample of non-managed colonies remains to be seen. But certainly, amongst the beekeepers in the NIHBS these are the predominant type of A. m. mellifera here. Indeed, the GBBG sent bees to Colonsay and other locations in the UK indicating the potential of these types of analyses to detect relationships.
Like I said Dutch bees lol.
The bees from Jensen et al. (2005) were sampled from GBBG and corroborated the records maintained by the group in that they derived from the population existing in Ireland in the 1920s as well as those imported from the Netherlands after the Isle of Wight disease (Mac Giolla Coda, personal communication, 2016). So, the large numbers of bees similar to the Dutch type detected here reflect the significant imports by beekeepers from the Netherlands after the loss of managed colonies during Isle of Wight disease. Here mitochondrial data coincides with evidence described in the grey literature and by word of mouth. Whether the same levels of Dutch haplotypes will be present in a wider sample of non-managed colonies remains to be seen. But certainly, amongst the beekeepers in the NIHBS these are the predominant type of A. m. mellifera here. Indeed, the GBBG sent bees to Colonsay and other locations in the UK indicating the potential of these types of analyses to detect relationships.
Like I said Dutch bees lol.
