Parliament bees

[greengumbo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27900282

Acclimatised to the local weather and prolific producers apparently.

Scot parl should be getting native bees. I'm as guilty as the next beekeeper of getting imports in the past but I was new to the craft then. Getting native strain bees at the parliament and getting the SBA to help with it all would have been great news. Instead we have this KVH group, which I have heard some terrible stories about.

Can the SBA not release a press statement about this ? I personally think they have missed a trick here.

[Jon]

Where's Gerry? Probably drafting a pithy letter already.

[drumgerry]

Well I have commented on the Scotsman page Jon. This makes me want to run into the distance screaming and tearing what little hair I have left out!

GG - the problem is the SBA as an organisation don't give a flying bleep about helping our native bees. Gavin - when are we getting this Native Scottish Honey Bee Society going? Can't let Jon and his Irish lot take all the glory can we?!;)

[HJBee]

I think as with many things the Scottish Parliament has missed a trick whilst jumping on a bandwagon for politicking.

[drumgerry]

I think it's more that they've gone with bad advice. Not a problem exclusive to the Scottish parliament!

[Jon]

Someone has given them the bs about Buckfast and failed to mention that Scotland has an indigenous bee.
Bull almost certainly linked to the people looking after the bees.
They should be embarrassed.

[croc]

an English buzz in the Scottish Parliament....

[lindsay s]

Wee Eck will be pleased because black and yellow are the SNP colours and Buckfast is Scotland’s other national drink (sorry IRN BRU).

[HJBee]

Maybe it's a ploy and someone is training them all to vote No!

[gavin]

See how believeable this guy sounds:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr2n5OnAhxA

So good he said it all twice. All that franchising, what a money spinner. A spinner anyway. I assume they didn't get the money? They do seem to have absorbed a lot of grants and award money so far.

The account given to the SBA AGM of the experiences of the real Kelvin Valley Beekeepers Association (http://www.kvba.co.uk/index.html) with these folk was quite something.

Gerry - this summer we're getting that breeding site underway. Let's take stock in the autumn.

[gavin]

Apparently honeybees in the UK have declined dramatically, by over two thirds some say! Never fear, Kelvin Valley Honey comes to the rescue .....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=305NQYBeZSQ

[drumgerry]

Well what those videos show is that if you have the neck to play up all the scare stories/lies the media peddles about bees then you can get an awful lot of public money for yourself. I think our job is to debunk them at every opportunity and to make sure they don't achieve their objectives to put their imported/non-native bees in communities up and down the country. It's really a pretty terrifying business model based on the exploitation of bees. And maybe it was just me but in the first video I was half expecting him to be wearing a suicide vest and have banners with arabic writing behind him!

Yep Gavin all too busy right now - once the season quietens down we should organise something. Every time something like this comes up I find myself wishing that the interests of our native bees and those who love them had a voice. Maybe the likes of KVH would have to think again if we did.

[Jon]

Well what those videos show is that if you have the neck to play up all the scare stories/lies the media peddles about bees then you can get an awful lot of public money for yourself. I think our job is to debunk them at every opportunity and to make sure they don't achieve their objectives to put their imported/non-native bees in communities up and down the country.

Yep. The so called decline decline in Europe is actually a 7% increase between 2005 and 2010.
There are far too many organizations spinning this tripe about bee decline in order to attract funding.