BBKA Forum

British Beekeepers Association Official Forum 

  • BBKA and bee imports

  • Please Ensure all sale of bees are checked & sold within the correct guidelines, State the location, Type and package/nuc/hive
Please Ensure all sale of bees are checked & sold within the correct guidelines, State the location, Type and package/nuc/hive
 #10402  by AdamD
 27 Mar 2021, 10:09
I am not sure if this is the correct section for the following however I thought it would be Ok to have it next to a relevant thread about imports; this has come from the BBKA Chair via an association email.

As you are probably aware, there is a move to bring bees into the UK via Northern Ireland. This is to circumvent the law that prohibits Package Bees, Nuclei and Colonies entering the UK and is a result of a loophole allowing direct entry into Northern Ireland from the European Union. These bees would have a health certificate issued in the area of the EU from which they originated but would have no other serious inspections in Northern Ireland or when they enter the rest of the UK.
They are coming from southern Italy near the site where the outbreak of Small Hive Beetle (SHB) originated. Although officially there is not a threat of SHB in the area, there is little compensation if beekeepers report an outbreak that would result in colonies being destroyed and restrictions put officially on the movement of bees in the area.
The SHB is in Italy and in the area where these bees are being bred. If they get into the UK they will spread rapidly.
The BBKA with Bee Disease Insurance, organised cooperation between Northern Ireland beekeepers, Welsh and Scottish beekeepers. Joint letters were sent to Ministers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The BBKA (or rather me, as it must be set up by an individual) has organised a Parliamentary Petition. The petition is now live so please publicise as widely as possible. Please share the link https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/577603
Stop the importation of honey bees into GB from the EU via Northern Ireland
The UK Government should ensure that people cannot circumvent restrictions on the movement of bees from the EU to GB by moving them via NI. Unrestricted movement of bees could allow Small Hive Beetle to arrive and devastate British beekeeping.
The potential effect of allowing this avoidance of the import laws and the threat it carries to our bees is clearly not part of a legitimate trade and as such breaches the law. Historically, the imports of bees into Northern Ireland were small and therefore there is not a strong inspection service available. They would be challenged to inspect high numbers of Package bees before the bees are repackaged and shipped on to other parts of Great Britain as Package bees or Nuclei. More details can be found in the accompanying document and on the BBKA website and in the April edition of the BBKA News.
 #10406  by NigelP
 27 Mar 2021, 12:34
The BBKA seem determined to have all beekeepers living with the general mediocrity ( and bad temper in some areas) of local mongrels. Load of scaremongering stuff being whipped up.
Interesting they are also petitionioning against the limited licence for use of neonics yet several years The BBKA were accepting donations from agri-chemical companies in return for use of the BBKA logo.

Worth noting that the ban on neonics has substantially reduced the UK OSR crop . This is the major reason the UK area of oilseed rape shrunk from a high of 756,000ha in 2012 to an estimated 361,000ha in 2020. It is now only being grown in areas where cabbage stem flea beetle is not endemic. The farms where I used to take my bees to stand alongside their fields of OSR no longer grow it as the yields, and the extra pesticide costs, mean its become a loss maker for them.
 #10408  by MickBBKA
 27 Mar 2021, 16:25
Possibly more chance of importing SHB eggs in fruit from other countries than on bees that will have been inspected at source. IMHO.
 #10410  by NigelP
 27 Mar 2021, 17:50
BBKA Chair wrote:
27 Mar 2021, 10:09
. Unrestricted movement of bees could allow Small Hive Beetle to arrive and devastate British beekeeping.
Is UK beekeeping so fragile?
Small hive Beetle has not devastated beekeeping in any country where it is endemic, so why should it here?
Unwelcome nuisance definitely but not a death knell.
Me thinks just an example of rhetorical fear mongering with no factual basis.
 #10412  by Patrick
 27 Mar 2021, 20:06
MickBBKA wrote:
27 Mar 2021, 16:25
Possibly more chance of importing SHB eggs in fruit from other countries than on bees that will have been inspected at source. IMHO.
Quite possibly, though I logistically doubt anyone is inspecting in any detail more than an infinitesimally tiny fraction of the bees (or fruit come to that) which comes in. My mate who deals with imported tropical timber has hilarious stories of the hitchhikers they have encountered over the years.
 #10413  by Alfred
 27 Mar 2021, 20:08
But think of the opportunity it will provide to peddle potions and gadgets.
You could licence one potion and make the others illegal thereby making a fortune
Not that we've seen that before...
 #10416  by MickBBKA
 28 Mar 2021, 03:05
Patrick wrote:
27 Mar 2021, 20:06
Quite possibly, though I logistically doubt anyone is inspecting in any detail more than an infinitesimally tiny fraction of the bees (or fruit come to that) which comes in. My mate who deals with imported tropical timber has hilarious stories of the hitchhikers they have encountered over the years.
Yes thats true, but the volume of imported fruit will probably be millions of tons more than packages of bees so 50% of bees is going to be magnitudes less than 50% of fruit.
I bought a pack of Cashmere Chilis from a farmers market once and they sat in the sealed plastic bag for about a year before I remembered them when making a curry one night. As I opened them and tipped onto a chopping board there was about a dozen insects ran out of the chillies. I quickly grabbed them and burnt them. My wife would have screamed and ran away allowing them to escape into the environment. Its a perfect example of the dangers.
 #10435  by JoJo36
 31 Mar 2021, 21:18
I don't understand why the BBKA is against imports of bees now due to SHB and before that varroa when as others have pointed out these insects will arrive in food imports from Europe whether or not we stop the import of bees anyway which is how the asian hornet got to our shores I believe??!!

When it suits , we are told diversity is good for us and is a marker of progress, why so different for bees?! Surely mixed race bees have greater attributes than keeping the gene pool limited??!!
 #10437  by MickBBKA
 01 Apr 2021, 02:20
Asian hornet arrived in france on a ship. They expanded all over northern europe because the french government did nothing to stop them. They are slowly heading into England via sea transport and probably their own flight. I don't believe there has ever been any transmission via bees or beekeeping.

Many areas don't want mixed race bees because they are not suited to our local environment, although our bees are all mixed race to some extent. Its very noticeable the difference in activity between yellow bees and black bees when you have them in a single apiary. Lots of arguments either way about which is best. Italians v British black bee v pure bred Buckfast mongrels. ;) ;) :D
 #10438  by NigelP
 01 Apr 2021, 06:50
MickBBKA wrote:
01 Apr 2021, 02:20


Many areas don't want mixed race bees because they are not suited to our local environment, although our bees are all mixed race to some extent.
Bees kept by beekeeper are not adapted to any environment. Many hives would die if they weren't fed or treated for disease etc by us.. This is not adaption to an environment despite the frequent claims that it is.
Bees react according to the the availability of resources in their location. Some bees are able (because of breeding) to take full advantage of the resources whilst many simply don't.