> The first varroa mites were detected in the UK on 4th April 1992. In
> the South (Devon).  Since then the infestation has been spreading
> throughout the country.  It has not yet reached the North of the
> country.  The point that I was trying to make was that when an area
> becomes infested - for a year or two - beekeepers who do not treat
> their infested bees sustain a reservoir of mites that will reinfest
> the colonies of beekeepers who do treat their bees.  After a year of
> two,  those beekeepers who do not treat their bees either give up
> beekeeping because they no-longer have any bees to keep,  or treat
> their bees.  I believe it is the experience of beekeepers in the UK
> who kept bees in the areas that became infested first,  found that
> reinfestation was less of a problem a couple of years later.
<etc.>
 
Here in Alberta, Canada, there is presently a move afoot to try to
obtain imports of US mainland bee stock via packages by attempting to
have the current border closure to US mainland bees  set aside.
 
At present, Alberta has a few small pockets of varroa, but is
largely unaffected.  Because bees are moved around from area to area
somewhat discretely, and to a very limited extent, the spread has
been slow.  There is no migratory beekeeping to speak of and any
spread that there has been is directly a result of what little there
is.
 
One arguement against free access to cheap California packages and
queens is that is that some package buyers will revert to running the bees
one season, and gassing them in the fall, rather than wintering.
Many (all) currently successful beekeepers winter their bees.  Since
running packages is more of a box keeping business than beekeeping,
they are expected to have a lower level of skill and knowledge (THis
was the case in the past).
 
The thought is that the packages are virtually certain to contain
varroa that left untreated -- or gassed poorly or late -- will
destroy the efforts of those who do not currently have varroa, or who
do and who treat their hives, and are in the neighbourhood. Moreover
these less knowledgeable  beekeepers might well  decide to overwinter
packages that have not been treated and fail repeatedly  with
expensive effects on the more prudent neighbours.
 
Moreover, it is thought that the US package producers have had
trouble in recent years supplying even their domestic market in a
timely fashion, and that opening the border would inflate the price
of bees to both US and Canadian beekeepers to the point where the
price becomes about the same as we are paying for bees from
Australia and New Zealand anyhow.
 
What are the thoughts of those on the list?
 
MAybe the British experience and comments from the US might be
germaine.
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>