I had no idea the protocols for Australian bee imports were so 
sophisticated and thorough. I'm impressed. Hopefully that guy who tried to 
smuggle queens in was nobody important and is no longer in the industry.

In my early beekeeping career I worked for a number of commercial 
operators and learned something from each of them. But I learned the most 
working for Norman Rice in Australia. The great thing about working for 
someone else is they have to pay for all your mistakes. And I cost Norman 
plenty on a number of occasions. But I think my most egregious error was 
the day I mistakenly thought that watermelon in the fridge was mine. 
Turned out it wasn't. It was a hot day and I couldn't help myself, but the 
day got a lot hotter when Norman found his watermelon gone.

While in Australia I also met Trevor Weatherhead but had no inkling that 
I'd meet him again years later in Edmonton Alberta. On the latter occasion 
Trevor was representing Australia on the import issue. If you have never 
met Trevor I can tell you he is most personable and likable. Trevor had 
come to the Edmonton meeting to ask that Canada change the definition of 
Australia to exclude a couple of it's northern islands, what with them 
being overrun with mites or hive beetles or some such thing. I was in 
favour of Australian imports then (in fact Trevor smoothly convinced me to 
draft his resolution on the subject - saying he was unfamiliar with the 
unique accent up here) and still think the Canadian industry needs 
Australian bees. The big risk factor in moving bees around the world is 
these beekeepers who think the rules don't apply to them. And we all know 
such individuals are not exclusive to any one country. 

While extolling the virtues of down under I wanted to mention that I 
recently talked to a New Zealand beekeeper by phone. I am not sure I heard 
correctly, what with the funny accent they have down there, but I believe 
he said a number of beekeepers in NZ have teamed up to fund a resistance 
breeding program. Perhaps someone can correct me but the figure I heard 
was $10,000, that is each beekeeper is donating $10,000/yr to have some 
university breed a bee resistant to varroa. That contrasts sharply with 
the lands of the free, brave and meek here in North America where we spend 
all our time sniveling about the government letting our industry go to 
hell in a hand basket. ( you got a problem - work together and fix it! How 
did they learn to think like that?)

Ted 

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