Regarding bees as a protected species. I had a very interesting response
when I got in touch with the National Trust, and other organisations,
that 'care' for a large tract of heath land earlier this summer. I was
looking for a place to set down some bees on the heather. There are ling
and bell heathers in this area.
 
I was initially turned away and given the same stock answer: basically
to do with public liability, and stories of people turning over hives,
or looking inside them, etc. I came home to a message on my phone from
one of the wardens to say that further to our conversation he had now
been advised by English Nature that he would not be allowed to have bees
on his site. These are the three reasons he was given:
 
1.    DOMESTIC BEES ARE NOT ALLOWED ON AN 'SSSI'
 
2.    BEEKEEPERS (DOMESTIC) BEES ARE MORE AGGRESSIVE - compared with
wild bees and will compete with them for food. (This was apparently the
major reason)
 
3.    BEEKEEPERS BEES WILL BRING IN VARROA - they believe they can
protect the feral colonies from varroa by keeping out beekeepers.
 
I would like to know who on earth is advising them on these matters.
 
Well, I wrote off that particular area - at least in regard to the NT or
the RSPB, because all the heath is managed by some body or other which
is governed by English Nature (as I understand it). But when I got back
to London and took a walk over on the marshes I saw a sign saying that -
because the michaelmas daisy is becoming so invasive the organisation
responsible for the marshes will be eradicating a large area of it next
year. Who has ordered this... English Nature. Just as they issued orders
to clear much of the comfrey that grows there too, earlier in the year.
 
And to think I had been intending to contact them about putting an
'educational' apiary up there in a year or two, to teach children and
others in the community about bees. I now already know the answer
presumably. The implications are extremely worrisome because as far as I
understand, EN are in conrol of more or less all the 'wild' areas left
in Britain. Which would mean that beekeepers would not have access to
these areas. Only gardens or farmland. It brings up a number of ethical
questions too, to do with man's rights, responsibilities, and
considerations in respect of 'nature' and in his relationship to bees to
name but few. I would have hoped that beekeepers would become an
endangered species too, deserving of protection as much as other
creatures. I had not expected our bees (and us as the protectors of
varroa and breeders of aggressive bees) to be demonised in this ignorant
fashion.
 
So here is what I am thinking of doing at present. In order to
understand better what on earth is going on, I am considering taking my
free module (I am going on to my second year at university, studying
philosophy - with an interest in environmental ethics) in Environmental
Decision Making, and perhaps another in Wildlife Conservation
Management. And contacting English Nature for clarification of their
position. Well you have to start somewhere. Alternatively I could
perhaps ask them for a job, destroying any of those 'bad' aggressive,
varroa ridden bees that dare to cross the boundary and enter protected
land. As a beekeeper I am sure I would be able to spot the difference.
Then again maybe they should just shoot the beekeepers.
 
If anyone has anymore to add on this subject I would be very interested.
 
Madeleine Pym, London.
 
(Thinking a beesuit is possibly necessary but hardly sufficient for
becoming a dragon slayer, but at least I can make my own smoke)