Which areas of the UK are still varroa free?

[Stromnessbees]

I just had a look at the April issue of Beecraft. There is an article about Bee Health by Margaret Cowley on page 5, where she states: 'The only places in the UK without varroa are the Isle of Man and the Scillies.'

This is of course incorrect as Orkney, Colonsay and Mull are to my knowledge still ok, and the rumour about Shetland having varroa might not be true. Can anybody add to this list or clarify the situation in Shetland?

The statement in Beecraft can be potentially very damaging, as it gives people the false impression that varroa is everywhere anyway and that it's ok to move bees anywhere in the UK except to the IoM and the Scillies. :(

I think that we should write to the editor, Claire Waring, and ask her to publish a correction in the next edition, but we should have an idea first, which areas are still clear.

Doris

[gavin]

I had a long and interesting chat with the main beekeeper on Shetland a few nights ago. The suspicion that it isn't free of Varroa came from a drunken boast on another internet forum by a bee trader in Gloucestershire that he'd sent bees to Shetland (and Lewis and a long list of other places). We don't know if the boast was true, but the assumption is that it was. One hope is that - like some other customers of this trader - the recipients were both isolated and insufficiently experienced to get the bees through their first winter. So maybe Shetland is free of Varroa once more. Similar things have happened elsewhere - and may be happening now (he says mysteriously).

You shouldn't get too het up by the failure of the BBKA's magazine to keep a clear head about the differences between England, Britain and the rest of the UK. They regularly seem to have that difficulty (I'm stopping now before this turns into yet another bash the BBKA forum!).

SASA in Edinburgh are proposing to publish a revised map of Varroa in Scotland soon. Parts of the western fringes of the mainland seem to Varroa-free too, as is much of Caithness I'm told.

[Stromnessbees]

Thanks Gavin.

I still think a polite email to Beecraft is called for, to give them the chance to put their statement right.

Doris

[gavin]

Yes, why not.

[gavin]

My Bee Craft dropped through the letterbox this morning, and I see what you mean. There is also that article on 'Feral Bees in the UK: The Real Story' on p9. The SBA has been running a survey of feral and wild bees in Scotland for several years, with the same spring and autumn visits that the project reported in Bee Craft is adopting in England and Wales. The Scottish ferals vary from apparently near-native or native types living as wild bees in some areas to colonies in traditional sites that appear to die out regularly and get recolonised. I monitor one in a castle that seems to be in the latter category. Another, living in a hollow tree in central Scotland, swarmed into a chimney of a big house and there were pictures of the recovery of the swarm on another forum.

The article on feral bees in the UK makes no mention of this Scottish survey - I've no problem with that personally, but again it is misleading to claim that this is the UK, and that it is covering the real story. The Scottish feral survey has been reported in the Scottish Beekeeper, both the setting up of it and some reports on what has been found.

I was about to go on a rant about the English BBKA confusing even itself with its name, but perhaps I should keep my feelings on some recent controversies to private discussion. I did say that I would stop before this becomes another bash the BBKA forum.