The November summary minutes of the AFB PMP Mgmt Committee had the following:
"At the time the 2020/21 budget was set it was assumed that the High Risk Beekeeping operations identified would own an average of several hundred beehives each. However, since June 2020 all of the High Risk Beekeepers identified owned less than 100 beehives."
That is more in keeping with the expectations from the past, when it was always felt that both hobbyists and commercial beekeepers were less of an AFB outbreak risk than the side-line beekeeper with, say, 50 or 75 hives. Pressures of time, changes in interest, changes in returns, etc - all of those could lead to outbreaks for someone who did not depend on beekeeping for a substantial part of their livelihood.
I've always hoped that hobbyists, driven by serious interest in their bees, might deal responsibly with a diseased hive. And if they do have an outbreak, it is confined to a small number of hives, generally.
"At the time the 2020/21 budget was set it was assumed that the High Risk Beekeeping operations identified would own an average of several hundred beehives each. However, since June 2020 all of the High Risk Beekeepers identified owned less than 100 beehives."
That is more in keeping with the expectations from the past, when it was always felt that both hobbyists and commercial beekeepers were less of an AFB outbreak risk than the side-line beekeeper with, say, 50 or 75 hives. Pressures of time, changes in interest, changes in returns, etc - all of those could lead to outbreaks for someone who did not depend on beekeeping for a substantial part of their livelihood.
I've always hoped that hobbyists, driven by serious interest in their bees, might deal responsibly with a diseased hive. And if they do have an outbreak, it is confined to a small number of hives, generally.