In a message dated 27/12/2006 17:43:19 GMT Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

But, we  are talking about *migratory beekeeping*. The idea of acclimation
really  doesn't apply here (if anywhere). One of the characteristics of honey
bees  (and people) is their ability to adapt to almost any climate.  



Nevertheless there is evidence that bees become accustomed to and thrive  
better in conditions to which, as a colony, they have been bred. The late  
Professor Len Heath kept bees on the high moorland of Dartmoor (SW UK) and also  on 
lower ground nearer the coast of Plymouth. He reported that bees moved from  
one location another didn't do as well as those that were already there.
 
There were reports from France a few years ago that when bees from the  Paris 
area were moved to the SW and vice versa it was a couple of years before  
they caught up with the locals.
 
Certainly bees are very adaptable: this is how they have managed to survive  
so long and so widely spread through very severe climate changes over 
millennia  but there is a difference between surviving and thriving.
 
We tend to measure things from our own point of view - usually how great a  
honey crop we can extract from a colony of bees. Or whether they have enough  
frames of brood at a certain time to entitle the beekeeper to pollination  
payments. Thus bees that are taken chasing crops or are artificially fed to  
stimulate accelerated out of season brood rearing and don't die in the process  are 
likely to be accounted successful. Perhaps we need another bee-centric  
measure.
 
As Peter reminds us; some species of honeybees do naturally migrate with  the 
climate.  Apis dorsata and laboriosa in India spring to mind as well as  
scutellata in parts of Africa; however this is not a characteristic normally  
associated with Apis mellifera mellifera, ligustica or carnica which are the  ones 
with which most beekeepers are familiar and aim to stick with.
 
In another mail Peter quotes Tew in associating Isle of Wight Disease with  
tracheal mites.  Leslie Bailey, the author of Honey Bee Pathology, casts  much 
doubt on this linkage and suggests that one of the paralysis viruses was  the 
most likely cause of that dwindling of bees; however the symptoms do not  
exactly match those currently described, but many more viruses are now known  each 
with their own set of symptoms or none.  Bailey is very insistent that  the 
more colonies of bees kept in one location the more likely trouble is to  
arise. I expect that those looking into the present disappearances will be aware  
of this and be able to say that, where there are problems, how many hives there 
 are within, say, a kilometre, or were before the colony was moved. 
 
Chris
 
 

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