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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 21 May 2009 09:22:46 -0400
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> Around a third of honeybee hives were wiped out across the UK last year. Although no one knows 
why honeybees are dying in such huge numbers, pesticides, poor weather, parasites, disease and 
starvation have all been implicated. The native black honeybee, found only in a few remote parts of the 
country, could help reverse the dramatic decline in honeybees in Britain, say experts. 

> The Co-operative Group has today launched a fund to map locations of the rare, hardy British black 
variety and to develop a breeding programme to increase their numbers. In Britain, the native 
honeybee was practically wiped out a century ago by what is known as the Isle of Wight disease, named 
after the place it was first detected. Beekeepers replaced their empty hives with the Italian honeybees, 
a subspecies of the honeybees found in southern Europe and the Balkans.

> Willie Robson, who owns Chain Bridge Honey Farm in Berwick-upon-Tweed, is probably the nation's 
largest black bee apiarist with 1,800 hives across Northumberland and the Scottish borders. While he 
says his bees only made half the usual crop of honey last year, he only lost about a fifth of his bees – far 
fewer than the majority of beekeepers with Italian stock. "Our bees are pretty hard and have total 
resistance to most diseases," he says.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/18/black-bee-co-op-population

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