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Ok this is what I have heard.

Personally I lost some 20% which I consider perfectly normal.

Talking to a Scottish Beefarmer at Stoneleigh he reported excellent over wintering with below normal losses.

Talking to another Bee Farmer at Stoneleigh he told me of losses running at 70%+ in some operations. This would be in tune with the article and the disease issues over the border. (pretty bloody poor bee farming not to see major disease issues but that is another matter)

So where are we in general? In my view beekeeping is on the up, seriously so and so are there fewer or more colonies in the UK than there were three years ago? I think more.

But as always a good news story sells no papers.

PH
 
There was a comment in the article about a lack of bee inspectors. I have not read of any issues in online forums (fora). I am sure someone would have moaned if there were?

I would ahve thought that a beekeeper with 1200 hives would not rely on a bee inspector or the lack of one if his business depended upon his bees.
 
There are/were no bee inspectors in Scotland, not since mid 90's.

PH
 
There are/were no bee inspectors in Scotland, not since mid 90's.

PH

WE've got a few up here in Scotland now since the outbreak of AFB and EFB and I understand a few more part timers are being trained up.Perhaps the new government will spare a few pounds to help save the bee - but I doubt it - we've got to replace our Polaris fleet first and sustain an unwinnable war in Afganestan.
 
"In a hard-hitting report last year, the National Audit Office suggested that amateur beekeepers who failed to spot diseases in bees were a threat to honeybees' survival and called for the National Bee Unit to carry out more inspections and train more beekeepers"

Comments like this really tick me off, i met someone from the BBC Natural History Unit yesterday, and he came out with the same thing but before blaming any other cause of decline, it would seem that someone somewhere away from the NAO is stoking the "Lets blame the beekeepers" fire.

So according to that comment, two of the hives i lost this year to disease were my fault, as i did not spot it until it was too late !! So can someone tell me how you can spot a disease that has no visible sign such as Nosema C.

There appears to be high losses locally to me, met some from the local association who also lost more than 50%, the Looooong winter certainly did not help.
 
Ok, just for the record and IMO this reporter is making a career from making a crisis as she spends her time hovering over each new report and waiting for bad news. I attended the What’s the Buzz event at the University of Sussex just the other week and there is a definite drive from her and others to paint doom and gloom - no disaster = no work = no funding for starters - she also kindly announced her next big release "A world Without Bees II", no kidding, she announced this book is due for release late this year or next. She is actually planning her next doom and gloom book on bees….

I take the media with a big bucket of salt after that event and others, yes there are issues but far too many ppl have personal and careers agendas in communicating bad news for me to believe much of what I read.

We need more positive news, I would love to have come back to this forum with a great write-up on University work but sadly they seem to spend all the time on waggle dances (nice ppl mind :) ).
 
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"it would seem that someone somewhere away from the NAO is stoking the "Lets blame the beekeepers" fire.


I've just put my flak jacket on and retired to the bunker..... 'blame the beekeeper may have some credibility as an argument' but the article is talking about losses in the USA and with USA disciplines and in an attempt to sell news papers. I am certain that the balance between pollination services, honey production and hobbiest keeping is very different in the UK to the US and I suspect that the losses are significantly elevated within the pollination sector.

Why am I saying this > National Bee Unit is based at the Central Science Laboratory, York. I live in York. I know at a friendship level several guys who work within DEFRA based in York, including one with contact/knowledge of the bee unit. We have talked bees in some detail over a pint or several. I understand that over winter their research and their monitoring hives (100+) achieved a zero loss. Good on them and chalk one up to good husbandry.

Surely our actions, our monitoring, our manipulations and the geography of our chosen apiary sites has a very significant impact on colony health and viability (my words not to be asociated with anyone at DEFRA). There will be outside factors - parasites - agro chemical treatments etc; but as beeks I can not accept that we rule ourselves out of the equation - or can we? discuss!
 
What I don't understand is that hive numbers must be increasing as over the past 2 years thousands of new beeks have been attracted into beekeeping and all must have at least one (or more likely 2) hives, which just were'nt there 3 or 4 years ago.
 
What I don't understand is that hive numbers must be increasing as over the past 2 years thousands of new beeks have been attracted into beekeeping and all must have at least one (or more likely 2) hives, which just were'nt there 3 or 4 years ago.

UK or USA?
 
but as beeks I can not accept that we rule ourselves out of the equation - or can we? discuss!

Depends if your a PPB.....if you are, then your in the equation.
 
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Don't worry; soon government spending will plummet and non-essential services like bee inspectors will start to dry up. Either that or we will all end up paying a levy on on our hives to fund the inspectors.

I wonder when EFB will be made non-notifiable ....
 
I wonder when EFB will be made non-notifiable ....

Soon as the money dries up i suspect,was nearly for the chop a couple of years ago.
 
"In a hard-hitting report last year, the National Audit Office suggested that amateur beekeepers who failed to spot diseases in bees were a threat to honeybees' survival and called for the National Bee Unit to carry out more inspections and train more beekeepers"

Commercial beeks are at least as bad as amateur's: EFB and AFB were discovered in commercial guys' bees last summer in Scotland.
 
" amateur beekeepers who failed to spot diseases in bees were a threat to honeybees' survival "

Goes back a bit - no, a lot - further than this, I think.

Or is it never mind the monocrops, removed hedgerows, the pesticides, open importation of disease,etc,etc. Honey bees could probably not survive in any numbers, but for the amateurs and beefarmers who are keeping the species nurtured and generally well looked after. Well, much better than the treatment the government gives them (and the myriad of their other arthropod relatives which are also seriously in decline).

Certainly the right way to go - more inspectors. But perhaps they should be renamed 'advisors' - except the government would definitely be charging for their advice if that were to happen.

And don't blame the commercial guys. Their livliehood is at stake here. I don't always agree with some of the practices, but that is the way they have to operate to make a living.

RAB
 
But perhaps they should be renamed 'advisors' - except the government would definitely be charging for their advice if that were to happen.
RAB


RAB that might not be a bad idea. If all hives have to be registered and 'advisors' visit, then the govt is also going to have to explain why they are doing this, ergo they recognise the following:

23-04-09 (source BBC) The value of the bees' services were estimated at £200m a year. The retail value of what they pollinate was valued closer to £1bn.

I'll pay my, say £50 for an 'advisory' visit against clearly formalised/qualifying standards of 'what a good hive looks like' and will then look forward to my cut of the £200m. I think there are about 250k hives estimated in the UK - that's £800 per hive, nice profit!

Or to put it another way, the country needs us amateurs much more than we need them (as beeks I mean)! Only a numpty would try to regulate us out of a hobby that they need us to participate in, at our expense so that others make profit or get fed cheaply.

:rant:

Note to Admin: no tongue-in-cheek smiley!
 
"In a hard-hitting report last year, the National Audit Office suggested that amateur beekeepers who failed to spot diseases in bees were a threat to honeybees' survival and called for the National Bee Unit to carry out more inspections and train more beekeepers"

Commercial beeks are at least as bad as amateur's: EFB and AFB were discovered in commercial guys' bees last summer in Scotland.

Actually, it does sound like I'm moaning about commercial beeks, which wasn't my intention at all! More that it's wrong to blame ignorance or bad-practice of beekeepers for all the problems. People who manage to make their living in such a difficult way cannot be accused of rampant bad practice or ignorance, or they'd've gone bust years ago.
 
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