To: Allen and All.

Allen's original post from Kansas City, Missouri has two different subjects
with both warranting further discussion. The second subject: "The SHB
(Small Hive Beetle) found in Australia turns out to be a different variety
than the one in the US"; is indeed significant; and IMHO needs further
discussion!

"The Speedy Bee" reported in Volume 31, Number 4, Page 10 of their August
2002 publication the following article: "USDA- APHIS Proposes Revising
Regulations for Import of Bees". The article refers to the notice in the
August 19, 2002 "Federal Register" pages 53844-53867.  The USDA-APHIS
proposes to "allow, under certain conditions, imports of honey bees from
Australia, and honey bee germ plasm and honey bees from New Zealand".
Public hearings and the period of review for the proposal were reported to
have been completed as of November 18, 2002.

The pests that have been introduced (to the US) within the last 15-20 years
have been costly to the environment, the beekeeper, the public, and the
feral honey bee. North Carolina in the last four years has gone from one
county with the SHB to now over 39. As a commercial beekeeper with
pollination contracts I find it difficult to schedule movement of bees with
certain areas of various counties under quarantine. I also find the
additional expense and time necessary to deal with this pest frustrating as
I have yards both with and without the SHB. This pest tends to take
advantage of weak hives or supers with honey and no bees. Reports that I
have heard from Florida and South Carolina are more serious in that the SHB
lays prolifically even in strong colonies. The feral honey bee in this part
of the country still is having a very hard time trying to survive tracheal
and Varroa mites, now it must also survive the SHB.

The opening of doors to importation of Australia's variety of the SHB could
possibly be of no consequence at all, or it could be quite to the
contrary.  A lot of time, sweat, heartbreak, and money has been spent with
mite problems by both the beekeeper and the scientist.  Our southwestern
states are now trying to deal with another unwanted insect, the AHB, and
like the SHB it is not going to go away.

We need to find out as much as possible about this Down-under Aussie
Beetle, or "Aethina tumida australis" and prevent its entry into the
Americas, at least until we know that we can deal with it.  I am afraid
that the genetic diversity that the feral honeybee of the eastern United
States and Canada carries may be lost in the not too near future due to the
many problems that mankind has introduced since European settlement in the
Americas began; but then, one of the things it began with was the European
honey bee which has been of tremendous benefit to all.  Perhaps one hundred
years from now the feral honeybee will be a SMR Russian-NWC-Buckfast-SMR
Carnolian-Minnesota Hygenic-SMR Italian-AHB cross, and honey bees will be
more highly managed than they are today.


Chuck Norton
Norton's Nut & Honey Farm
Reidsville, NC

High today: 38 Low tonight: 16  Two inches of snow on the ground and just
about two more weeks until the red maple, Acer rubrum blooms! The Mahonia,
Mahonia lomarifolia, in my Brown's Summit apiary has already started to
bloom, spring can not be far away!