In the Beginning.

The bee keeping club had its annual guest lecture this evening and there was some discontent expressed about the behaviour of the national body - The Scottish Bee Keepers’ Association (here after known as the SBA – they don’t understand that “bee keeper” is two words). A significant proportion of the SBA membership wishes a law forbidding the importation of honey bees on the grounds that it risks the accidental import of honey bee diseases and it introduces alien races of bees  to interbreed with the native bee to its detriment (think of the Scottish wild cat being driven to extinction by hybridization with the domestic moggy as an extreme example).
 
Our youngest bee keeper, fresh from celebrating the birth of his daughter, is keen on such things and lent me his copy of “Breeding Better Bees,” published by the British Isles Bee Breeding  Association in 1993. The blip is of the first two paragraphs of its introduction and, as a result of reading them, I am now a fully paid up member of the organisation – as of five minutes ago. These few words sum up the situation admirably.
 
From where I stand, it is the SBA’s duty to lobby governments to pass legislation to protect both the bees and their keepers from the perils of importation as they do wield significant influence in such circles. Unfortunately, their executive insists that it sits on the fence as it is written into the constitution that they must support all Scottish bee keepers and their charges, whatever the race of the bees, a contradiction in that by taking that stance they are not supporting the significant proportion of members who wish to keep the native bee. Further the SBA claims that such a ban contravenes the EU laws on free trade, ignoring the fact that there are numerous similar bans already in force. There are several bans on importing alien races of bee to various portions of the EU, including Scotland’s own island of Colonsay. There have also been bans on the movement of cattle during BSE and foot-and-mouth epidemics; bans on the movement of ash trees and products to Ireland to mention just a few.
 
I sense that there will be a certain amount of unrest at next year’s SBA AGM.