Ruary Rudd <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The news on the varroa front in Ireland is bleak, last year colonies in
> Sligo and Mayo were found to be infested with the mite.
>
> This year the mite has been discovered on bees in County Carlow some 140
> miles from the location of the original discovery.
> ...
> The only conclusion that can be gleaned from this is that the whole country is
> now probably infested.

Varroa was the TOP topic of discussion at Gormanston.  The point was clearly
made that if Irish beekeepers have not yet seen Varroa in their area it's only
a matter of time before they do.  I was impressed by the number of concerned
and preparing beekeepers there were attending the many varroa related sessions.

The good news is that the Ministry of Agriculture has shifted their strategy
from eradication to containment, meaning they still don't get it.  But at
least they've stopped burning hives.  The official line was that the varroa
infestation was more wide spread than they originally thought and they realized
that eradication was wishful thinking.  Personally I suspect someone realized
that there was not enough money around to compensate the owners of the burned
hives.  News too late for those beekeepers who were burned out.

Anyway, now the Ministry is attempting to contain varroa to  Sligo and Mayo,
although they are allowing known infestations to go untreated until the end of
the heather season with expectations to treat after the harvest.  In other
words,  they still don't get it!

However, the good news is that a lot of the Irish beekeepers aren't depending
on their Ministry of Agriculture to save them from varroa and they are
preparing to address the problem when it arrives (and it will arrive) in their
own yard(s).  An exellent session presented by Ian McLean was titled, "Varroa:
Only a Problem When You're Not Looking!"  The session included techniques to
detect varroa and the full gamut of IPM strategies that have been developed in
other parts of the world.  Ireland has the advantage that much works has been
done before they had to deal with the problem.  Additionally, Ireland has no
snow so they won't be able to use the lame excuse of having left strips in all
winter because they didn't want to risk breaking a winter cluster ;-)

Aaron Morris - thinking the bees weren't green, but the trip was great!