"Lazarus Cooke" wrote in message
news:140720072225048218%lazaruscooke@britishlibrar y.invalid...
As a beekeeper (brixton, london) can i just say that this year is bad
for some, not so bad for others. As someone said, the varroa mite has
been here for a while, and most beekeepers use a number of strategies
to manage it.

Possibly more troubling is that the recent run of hot, dry summers has
encouraged many beekeepers, (including me) to favour the yellowish
italian honeybee (apis mellifera ligustica) over the british black bee
(apis mellifera mellifera). the aml bees do fine when the weather's
good, but when you've had a june like the past one, the queens at least
just sit inside, unlike their amm counterparts ( now probably only
existing around the galtee mountains in ireland) who are used to
struggling out to gather nectar, pollinate, and make passionate love
even in irish weather.

Colony collapse disorder is generally held to be an american
phenomenon. there are reports of it here but a lot of people have
doubts. Bee colonies die, from time to time, and they always have done.
Americans move bees all over the country, all the time, which is asking
for stressed bees and sudden, violent, rampant infections.

So all in all , bees are like plants - some years good, some years bad,
some years VERY bad.... but in the end a stronger group will probably
pull through.

Lazarus

In my posting I referred to "my bees" but in truth the colony lives in the
roof space of the house and has done so for the last 100 years (previous
owners family still live in the village and they say the house was bought in
1904 with the bees in residence!), so are they likely to be the apis
mellifera mellifera you refer to? if so it would certainly explain why mine
are doing so well, they are always active even on wet days like today

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea