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NEW ZEALAND BEEKEEPER, JULY 2017
places around the world where honey bees are not infected by the Varroa destructor mite nor either of the foulbroods, American (AFB) and European (EFB). IOM beekeepers are now on a quest to improve the Manx Dark Honey Bee genetics and to gradually eliminate the influence of foreign strains by careful selective breeding. The original Manx Honey Bee is regarded as resilient and supposedly easy to handle, but they still have some aggressive throwback traits, as we found while checking out some rather aggressive apiaries. In 1988, four years before varroa was detected in the UK, the IOM government banned the importation of bees, and later stopped any previously used beekeeping equipment being brought in. commercial beekeepers in Scotland make a full-time living from selling honey. Currently the Scottish Beekeepers Association has 1400 hobby members, with around another 1000 hobbyists who are not members. Thanks again to Robin Ratcliffe, we had the opportunity to spend several days with him and the UK’s largest commercial bee farmer, Murray McGregor of Denrosa Apiaries in Perthshire, Scotland. With 2500 hives, Denrosa specialises in heather honey production throughout the Highlands and exclusively has hives on the Queen’s Balmoral Estate. The Queen was in residence with security everywhere, so we were a bit limited as to where on the estate we could go, but Murray and Robin took us all over the Highlands, checking out hives that had just been put onto apiary sites after coming back up from England. The guys use ex-army Unimogs for moving hives up into the heather moors—one had bullet holes in the roof. We also got to hang out with Denrosa’s queen rearer Jolanta Modliszewska, who showed us her queen breeding and nucleus production setup. When we arrived in Scotland the bell heather (Erica cinerea) was flowering in bright crimson pink patches, and the ling heather (Calluna vulgaris) was just starting to colour up. As we travelled from site to site, you could see the countryside changing colour from green to a soft pinky-mauve colour that brightened by the day, although we were probably a week or so too early to see it in full glory. The potential was there for a really good heather flow, if only the Highlands weather would be kind. Scotland It is estimated only a dozen of the 30
Tamara Mitchell at Denrosa Apiaries.
Above: Checking hives in the Cairngorms National Park, Scottish Highlands (polystyrene hives).
Below: 1980s ex-army Unimog.
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