It has been posted recently and in the past that there is a growing
body of beekeepers that are anti-import in the UK and if this is
correct we would expect to see a decline in import numbers.  The
figures given by DEFRA show exactly the opposite - 2011:4163 2012:7989
2013:8625 2014:9782 2015:10306.  An increase of 150% over the past
five years.  When we consider that the UK has about 250,000 colonies
of bees, the percentage of colonies with imported queens is around 4%.
One cannot but wonder what the other 95% are headed by.
Most people understand the importance of biodiversity and the need to
protect what exists at a species level – there is a lot of EU funding
for these projects. The motives behind the study quoted are obvious.
The fact that certain selected high performing strains were excluded
from the study brings up the question was the study “customised” to
fit the results?   Obviously if we bring mellifera or carnica type
bees to Southern Europe they will not survive very long.  As a bee
breeder that follows Buckfast ethos I am a supporter of the
conservation of the various subspecies and strains of honey bee as
these form the basis of our strain.
I do not understand how it is possible to make a dogmatic statement
that “Locally adapted bees are best” when it cannot even be defined.
What are local bees?  The autochthonous subspecies?  Joe blog’s five
colonies in his back garden or just the general population occurring
in the surrounding area – if it is this, then the general population
in the UK consists mainly of hybridised bees anyway.   Many
beekeepers, including the original poster, move their bees around to
different honeyflows, so declared adaptation to a particular area does
not hold water as the environment can be changed overnight.  For
example, moving bees to the heather flow in the UK.  In addition to
this is the possibility of other migratory apiaries being within
mating distance of the local bees when queens are mated.  Whilst local
bees and the autochthonous subspecies may be great survivors and
worthy of conservation/protection, not all of them meet the
requirements of beekeepers either behaviour wise or with their honey
production.  Germany changed from the widespread use of mellifera to
carnica.  Israel also replaced the local population with ligustica and
Buckfast.  Local bees are not best in Syria, Cyprus, Greece or Turkey
where caucasica has replaced many local strains.  Mellifera has been
replaced in Scandinavia by ligustica and Buckfast – very few people
keep mellifera type bees now.   According to the reports coming from
beekeepers visiting Italy, they are not very keen on ligustica there.
The disease/pest status, other than the present SHB detections in
Italy, is the same across the whole of the EU.  The idea that Nosema
ceranae is an exotic species that was recently spread by the bee trade
is erroneous and providing it as an example of pest proliferation is
misleading .  It was a cryptic species within the Nosema apis
population that was recently discovered.  Old bee samples clearly show
that the two species have been present together for a long time.

Best regards
Roger White.
Superbee apiaries, Cyprus.

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