emcampbell
09-12-2014, 11:41 AM
Dear all,
I have been in contact with a few of you directly and will PM a few more today ! Our research group up in Aberdeen have been involved in putting together a large collaboration of beekeeping associations, research institutes, universities and other groups across the EU for the past 2 years called SMARTBEEs (they demand acronyms!) and finally we have actually got the funding and started on the project. It is really ambitious in scope as you can read on the (very basic at the moment!) project webpage - http://www.smartbees-fp7.eu/
Myself and Dr Bowman in Aberdeen are directly involved in the pathogens and disease parts BUT a major thrust of the project is going to be on conservation and breeding of local native bees. The overall aim is to use cutting edge genetics to aid the breeding of local stocks of bees and conserving diversity. This is rather than producing a single bee strain in Germany say that is tolerant to varroa, produces heaps of honey and shows low swarming. The one bee fits all scenario is a bust flush !
Anyway I have been heaping praise on the Scottish beekeeping community (and parts of NI ;) as well as on certain members in here while speaking to the conservation and breeding work packages These are led by some of the best well known bee guys across Europe and include Per Kryger, Ralph Bucher, Bjorne Dahle, Aleksandar Uzunov and Kaspar Beinefeld. They are keen for us as a community to be involved.
As such all the collaborators involved in the project have been asked to get together a list of contacts from their area. FERA and the NBU are taking the lead on this in the UK but I thought there are people on here not likely to be contacted by FERA but that could contribute a huge amount to the project given your experience and the fact we have valuable native stocks in Scotland including some from varroa free areas.
If anyone is vaguely interested I am not asking for any kind of commitment but that I can pass on your details to the project. There is a budget for the teams involved to come over and give talks / training and run through in greater detail the projects aims and timeline. Bjorn Dahle and the rest were heavily involved in supporting the Colonsay Reserve status and are really decent guys. If you are even slightly interested please PM me your contact details and I will pass them on and keep you updated.
Cheers and thanks for your help,
Ewan Campbell
I have been in contact with a few of you directly and will PM a few more today ! Our research group up in Aberdeen have been involved in putting together a large collaboration of beekeeping associations, research institutes, universities and other groups across the EU for the past 2 years called SMARTBEEs (they demand acronyms!) and finally we have actually got the funding and started on the project. It is really ambitious in scope as you can read on the (very basic at the moment!) project webpage - http://www.smartbees-fp7.eu/
Myself and Dr Bowman in Aberdeen are directly involved in the pathogens and disease parts BUT a major thrust of the project is going to be on conservation and breeding of local native bees. The overall aim is to use cutting edge genetics to aid the breeding of local stocks of bees and conserving diversity. This is rather than producing a single bee strain in Germany say that is tolerant to varroa, produces heaps of honey and shows low swarming. The one bee fits all scenario is a bust flush !
Anyway I have been heaping praise on the Scottish beekeeping community (and parts of NI ;) as well as on certain members in here while speaking to the conservation and breeding work packages These are led by some of the best well known bee guys across Europe and include Per Kryger, Ralph Bucher, Bjorne Dahle, Aleksandar Uzunov and Kaspar Beinefeld. They are keen for us as a community to be involved.
As such all the collaborators involved in the project have been asked to get together a list of contacts from their area. FERA and the NBU are taking the lead on this in the UK but I thought there are people on here not likely to be contacted by FERA but that could contribute a huge amount to the project given your experience and the fact we have valuable native stocks in Scotland including some from varroa free areas.
If anyone is vaguely interested I am not asking for any kind of commitment but that I can pass on your details to the project. There is a budget for the teams involved to come over and give talks / training and run through in greater detail the projects aims and timeline. Bjorn Dahle and the rest were heavily involved in supporting the Colonsay Reserve status and are really decent guys. If you are even slightly interested please PM me your contact details and I will pass them on and keep you updated.
Cheers and thanks for your help,
Ewan Campbell