Isle of Man bees posted to UK to help save ailing hives

Queen bees are to be posted to the UK by the Manx Government's bee inspector to try to bolster the mainland's ailing hive populations. A dozen healthy Manx queens will be mailed in ventilated envelopes in a pilot project to discover if they can take over and cure diseased hives. The island's bees are disease-free after Tynwald passed a law in 1987 to ban the import of foreign bees. The queens will replace infected ones and may gradually spawn new colonies. Small matchbox-sized cages containing a single queen and up to five mating drones will be sent individually to UK keepers in Birmingham and Stockport, who have hives affected by debilitating viruses.