SHB arrives in France?

[B+.]

I can surely agree with that. Same thing happening in North America. The Canadians are importing package bees from NZ and AU. Waiting here for Tropilaelaps to show up. Just a matter of time. No reason the Canadians and everyone else can't raise their own bees...and better bees than they can buy.

And they tell me the packages are $250cdn. Lots of chalkbrood and failing queens. Half die in the winter. Paying $250 for a package to fill a pollination contract that pays far less. Nice
business plan, eh?

Let's put this in perspective. England and France are nowhere near as far apart as you are talking about (Max 150 miles according to wiki). We also don't have the economic driver for pollination that you talk about too. Our situations are quite different.
We don't even know if these rumours are true yet.

 

[For want of a better word]

Let's put this in perspective. England and France are nowhere near as far apart as you are talking about (Max 150 miles according to wiki). We also don't have the economic driver for pollination that you talk about too. Our situations are quite different.
We don't even know if these rumours are true yet.

Mayday......

Yet another APHA / BBKA conspiracy to prevent the import thousands of infected stock to meet the needs of hobby beekeepers who lost all their last seasons imported stock overwinter!
But all melds into insignificance if you look at the numbers of goldfish imported from EU and Non EU countries... probably carrying novel types of fishpox or similar!

​

Yeghes da

 

[Beefriendly]

to meet the needs of hobby beekeepers who lost all their last seasons imported stock overwinter!

Really! This sort of misleading statement appears to be just one of the many BIBBA propaganda and untruths they keep uttering?
The only hive I lost this winter was my last remaining hive of pure Amm's. You know the types, supposedly locally adapted over 1000's of years to survive in our British climate. Not it would seem.
Funny that all my last years imported queens from Denmark and Romania are all thriving.

 

[Stiffy]

Really! This sort of misleading statement appears to be just one of the many BIBBA propaganda and untruths they keep uttering?
The only hive I lost this winter was my last remaining hive of pure Amm's. You know the types, supposedly locally adapted over 1000's of years to survive in our British climate. Not it would seem.
Funny that all my last years imported queens from Denmark and Romania are all thriving.

When he was having his 'rest' from the forum, I really did miss the nonsense coming from Mr Cheers, Floppit, or whatever his latest name was for the week. Sadly people who don't know of his antics may take this as some sort of truth.
S

 

[mbc]

Quite a few argentine queens come here, I seem to remember a chap in south wales/border country raving about them a few years ago, let's hope sense prevails and we close our borders to queen imports until we know more about the extent of the spread.

 

[SDM]

Funny isn't it with the amateur associations being the ones selling the "local is best" nonsense to their members, that Cheers thinks it's them losing their bees.
The only commercial Beekeepers I've heard struggling with this winter are also local/black bee supporters.

 

[B+.]

Quite a few argentine queens come here, I seem to remember a chap in south wales/border country raving about them a few years ago, let's hope sense prevails and we close our borders to queen imports until we know more about the extent of the spread.

The strange thing about this rumour is that Argentina doesn't have SHB. Nevertheless, I enquired through my network whether there was any substance to it. Until I receive a response, I am treating the whole thing as untrue. I understand that people may prefer to block queen importation for their own reasons, but, I have no doubt that beekeeping would be a lot worse off without them.

 

[Millet]

Funny that all my last years imported queens from Denmark and Romania are all thriving.

Even in this colder than normal weather for this time of the year my Danish and Romanian are also thriving, i wonder if they are half cast and have a little bit of black bee in them somewhere down the line..

 

[Anduril]

Quite a few argentine queens come here, I seem to remember a chap in south wales/border country raving about them a few years ago, let's hope sense prevails and we close our borders to queen imports until we know more about the extent of the spread.

Must be talking about a Commercial Beekeeper.

 

[Swarm]

Really! This sort of misleading statement appears to be just one of the many BIBBA propaganda and untruths they keep uttering?
The only hive I lost this winter was my last remaining hive of pure Amm's. You know the types, supposedly locally adapted over 1000's of years to survive in our British climate. Not it would seem.
Funny that all my last years imported queens from Denmark and Romania are all thriving.

Wasn't she four years old or something? I had a three year old expire this Winter.

 

[Beefriendly]

let's hope sense prevails and we close our borders to queen imports until we know more about the extent of the spread.

Potentially people whose livelihood depends on bees will be out of a job if they cannot get early queens.
It has been pointed out many times that the UK cannot raise sufficient queens early enough to satisfy the spring demand.
Add in the many who wouldn't use local mongrels/black bees or whatever due to their poor honey gathering record...you have a recipe for a total melt down of the UK honey business if you ban imports.
Where is the sense in that?

 

[Beefriendly]

Wasn't she four years old or something? I had a three year old expire this Winter.

She was a 2015 queen and would have been 3 in June this year had she survived the winter.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Potentially people whose livelihood depends on bees will be out of a job if they cannot get early queens.
It has been pointed out many times that the UK cannot raise sufficient queens early enough to satisfy the spring demand.
Add in the many who wouldn't use local mongrels/black bees or whatever due to their poor honey gathering record...you have a recipe for a total melt down of the UK honey business if you ban imports.
Where is the sense in that?

I realise I risk being the first victim in a religious war, but surely the trick is to raise the queens the year before.

 

[thibault]

Aye, and the french who gallantly helped them by supplying Exocet missiles. I am of an age to have known several of those who fought on D-day and subsequent days......neither they nor their comrades; saw a frenchman anywhere.

I really advise you to study history, do not speak just with a few veterans and think you get the whole picture about a world war. By the way, my grandad got badly injured by the germans while figthing them, and made prisonner. The reason that they did not see many french soldiers on the dday ( though french green berets commando kieffer, 177 men, were allowed prior to the big day to land and do some special forces operations, 27 survived at the end) is political as Churchill and Roosevelt did not like De gaulle and did not want to include the french army in the dday in Normandy, De gaulle had been informed 1 day before the landing in Normandy. But who fought and freed the south of France (landing of provence), and reached Berlin with the allies, campaign of north africa, libya and italy? Before that in 1942, 35000 french men (who managed to escape the germans and stayed with de gaulle in uk) and british soldiers tried to land on french cost, many died as it was a failure. But lets try to keep it as a beekeeping forum. PM for further discussion.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

 

[thibault]

Let's not eh?
There are decent and not so decent people in every country.

[emoji106]

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[TryingToLetThemBee]

I really advise you to study history, do not speak just with a few veterans and think you get the whole picture about a world war. By the way, my grandad got badly injured by the germans while figthing them, and made prisonner. The reason that they did not see many french soldiers on the dday ( though french green berets commando kieffer, 177 men, were allowed prior to the big day to land and do some special forces operations, 27 survived at the end) is political as Churchill and Roosevelt did not like De gaulle and did not want to include the french army in the dday in Normandy, De gaulle had been informed 1 day before the landing in Normandy. But who fought and freed the south of France (landing of provence), and reached Berlin with the allies, campaign of north africa, libya and italy? Before that in 1942, 35000 french men (who managed to escape the germans and stayed with de gaulle in uk) and british soldiers tried to land on french cost, many died as it was a failure. But lets try to keep it as a beekeeping forum. PM for further discussion.

Sent from my SM-J710F using Tapatalk

+1 Thibault and I apologise by association. Just one word: Verdun.

 

[maddydog]

I realise I risk being the first victim in a religious war, but surely the trick is to raise the queens the year before.

ITLD gave a very detailed response to this very question just a few weeks ago. If you have a search around it's well worth a read.

 

[Beefriendly]

I realise I risk being the first victim in a religious war, but surely the trick is to raise the queens the year before.

From what I understand it works out cheaper to buy in imported queens than the costs and associated labour involved in overwintering sufficient queen bees in this country. Another factor is that many professional bee farmers don't want to use "local mongrel" queens in their operation.
As maddydog says above ITTLD gave a detailed post on why UK overwintered queens were not a viable option pretty recently.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Cool; ITLD always worth a digout. Will post the link.

Just brainstorming then, since bee farmers have the most to lose from unhygienic imports, Shirley there is a role for the BFA. eg maybe the BFA could contract out big queen raising contracts to known sterile overseas apiaries etc.

[ADD]It's this whole "Can of worms here" thread (wow!) https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=41635 and the most relevant ITLD post is this one (c/w explanation of why "ITLD"!) https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=622896&postcount=103[/ADD]

 

[Quis Custodiet]

+1 Thibault and I apologise by association. Just one word: Verdun.

...and perhaps a another word or two; San Carlos Bay, Exocets(supplied after the commencement of hostilities).