Quest for the British Bee

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There are lots of pockets of AMM left and thankfully I am assured that BIBBA is finally getting around to organising better communications so that these pockets can be linked up.

There's a big variation in genetic purity, joining up those pockets without knowing their make up could just dilute the more pure pockets.
 
Do pure AMM carry a gene that makes them susceptible to IOW disease ?
 
The first question is did the famed IOW disease actually exist at all?

I seem to remember Manley for one questioned that deeply.

The winters (yes I am going to discuss weather yet again) over the IOW period was not good for bees and how very convienient was it not for those who lost colonies over that period to point at IOW and say well well it was nothing to do with my competence or light weight feeding it was that so and so.

Just like varroa is today. Hmmmmm?

Further the experts at Craibstone which at he time was pretty much the UK's cutting edge bee establishment had very strong doubts as to whether the IOW disease existed.

NOSCA paid for no less than 5 Bee Advisers. Ponder that one. Five full timers for the area from Dundee to the islands. 5!

Peggy Logan was one of them, one of the last of them and her book is very well worth reading.

AMM does in my experience have a susceptibility to Nosema but with fumidil that is not that big an issue. Certainly not on the same scale as Varroa for sure.

They are hygenic bees and might hold out hope in that direction.

PH
 

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