Blighty's black honeybee comes in from the cold

Britain's native black honeybee could be "key to reversing the decline in the UK's honeybee population" - more than 100 years since Victorian apiarists rejected it for being too lazy and aggressive. That's according to a Co-operative supermarket-backed study by the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders' Association (Bibba), which …

[Charlie]

British natives...

lazy and aggressive.

Ha

[The Mighty Biff]

One million dollars !

10 grand ? Isn't that basically no money ?

Or have I banged my head and woken up in the 60s ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Black British Bees

They may tolerate the weather better, but produce less honey and are more aggressive.

The natives are lazy and aggressive, whilst the immigrants work harder and achieve more, and are more pleasant while they do it. We still talking about the bees?

Mine's the one with the veiled hood.

[Frank]

@Charlie re. British Natives...

Bzzzzzz off or you'll get your arse stung!

[TeeCee]

@The Mighty Biff

More interesting is that Sussex Uni's Black Bee breeding programme is funded to the tune of 100 grand. But that one's not been PR'd to death round the media and I hadn't heard of it 'til now (thanks El Reg).

So, I'm guessing that the difference in approach here is that the Co-Op are in for 10 grand to the bee boys and 90 grand to the PR men. Trebles all round!

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Black British Bees

LOL, I have to agree and I am a brit.

You just have to look at the corner shops open 30 hours a day 8 days a week to understand the truth.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Charver bees, then.

>> The Co-op has injected £10,000 into black honeybee research

Science is really run on shoestring budgets. Do they use boy scouts as volunteer employees, too?

It's hard being a financial powerhouse.

[The Voice of Reason]

Why bother with research?

Bees aren't important.

Not unless you think that what they help the survival of is important ; flowers, plants, other insects & animals, & oh yes, the food we eat.

[Dave]

Bees

Surely any additional bio-diversity is a good thing?

[Law]

RE: Bees

"Surely any additional bio-diversity is a good thing?"

Try telling that to the BNP!!

Where are the flood of moderatrix jokes, I'm dissapointed!!

[Anonymous Coward]

with careful selection

SMACK, SMACK, SMACK That'll teach you for misbehavin'.

[Steve]

Don't be blaming me....

Erm, far be it for me to be belittling of such beautiful, beastly beings, but where be the IT angle? Many readers will be visiting this site for IT stories because it be promoted thus. Okay, maybe it is time for me to beat a hasty retreat to a beach beside the sea and behave, leaving behind this message which I believe is beyond many, before I take my beef too-far and become besotted with besmirching the good names of the beavering workers of this revered beam of truth that be known as El Reg.

Paris ‘cos she could be my honey……I’ll get me coat – it’s between the bead curtain and the – oh beep … never mind!

[Anonymous Coward]

Good news!

As well as being a big organisation, the Co-op also happen to be the biggest farmer in the UK.

I guess they intend to keep farming in the future. This is great news, but I hope they can find even more money for research. Bees are important.

A small example - I started my broad beans early in my greenhouse and shut the door to keep the warmth in. The flowers came - but then they just fell off. Bad times. Then I started keeping the door open during the day, the bees came in and my beans have set. Good times!

Is that too geeky?

[YARR]

@law

So how does deliberately displacing a global minority population with a global majority population increase bio-diversity? I suppose you think grey squirrels displacing our native red squirrels is a good thing too? Do you live in cloud cuckoo land and assume they will reach a sustainable, natural balance?

[Nanki Poo]

@Steve

Just in case you weren't being tongue in cheek, it's filed under Science>Biology...

@AC 20:02

Not geeky at all. Another solution in times of scarcity of pollinators is just to dust around the flowers between plants with an artists paintbrush. Think of it a bit like a turkey baster. A couple of years ago was all parasites and no pollinators and me first ever toms were crap. I learnt that little pearl afterwards.

Still get crap toms tho. Tho the Petes are OK.

Now that's geeky.

nK

[Law]

@ YARR

Wooooaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh - where did that come from?? It was a joke, I'm sure the BNP arn't THAT bothered about Bee's.... but I expect a press release sometime in the next day or so explaining their position on local hives for local bee's, and the immigrant italians can go back home or something!! :-p

Not sure how you got that I hate biodiversity from my post, but to clear up my position, just incase...

I love grey squirrels, I love red squirrels, but I thought the problem with our native red's was that they weren't immune to a virus that was introduced when the grey's got dropped on us... I've not checked that fact though, just remember something like that from university (the wife has a biology degree in ecology and conservation - and she talks.... too much).

But as with all systems, an ecosystem is a balance, and sometimes that balance is messed with by us, but you could also argue that it doesn't matter how the greys got here, if they are better suited to our environment than the natives, then it's really just survival of the fittest, natural selection, and our ecosystem will balance itself out accordingly... Bee's in this case are different though, we basically farm them, and so artificial mould the population to suit our own end-game, so there is no natural selection, no balance found, no real biodiversity, and if we keep doing that then eventually it will bite us back in the arse and we will be left with no useful bee population.

[elderlybloke]

Do nothing

until Britain finds that crops are failing because of lack of bees.

Politicians will then tell you that the matter is being studied and that their party is confident of a solution.

Belt tightening will be necessary until some artificial alternatives can be developed.