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For myself and my local association, Wisborough Green BKA (WGBKA) in West Sussex, where I am Apiary Manager, I usually produce at least 100 queens per year. This is mainly to replace poorer queens in honey producing colonies, provide queens to head nucs for new beekeepers and for members who need queens for a variety of reasons. We try to encourage members to rear their own queens, but sometimes their bees need requeening with better stock. As many beekeepers only have a couple of colonies, they may not have bees that are good to propagate from. A BKA teaching apiary can be a genetic resource to distribute good local stock from.
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Welcome to the October Newsletter. I try to help new beekeepers on their beekeeping journey. I have somewhat ‘adopted’ a couple of first year beekeepers who bought Buckfast nucs this year and then contacted me for help. One had two colonies on commercial frames. Both colonies swarmed in June. The new queens have since mated…

Thanks for signing up to receive reminders on the current season of webinars on the National Bee Improvement Programme. You will also receive updates on BIBBA activities. We will register you as a supporter of NatBIP so that you receive information on progress in the future. Will will undeavour to only send one email to…

Tropilaelaps By Nick Mawby | 16 January 2025 European Beekeeping Association (EBA) By Nick Mawby | 15 December 2024 Code of Conduct By Nick Mawby | 13 December 2024 Varroa Resistance through Bee Improvement By Nick Mawby | 21 November 2024 December 2024 BIBBA Monthly By Gareth Trehearn-Trustee | 20 November 2024 November 2024 BIBBA…

Book download This month’s download is from 1907 and is called “Facts about bees”, written by E. Root. It’s fascinating to know just how much information was around a hundred years ago despite no internet and email!

Mated and virgin queens through the post Welcome to the September Newsletter. I mentioned last month that I’d been receiving mated and virgin queens through the post as part of the NatBIP piloting process. Each batch survived the postal journey from East Sussex to Cheshire and we picked up useful information about posting queens during…

Cupkit, Fakes and Annoyance “Cupkit” is a name that is used in the U.K. and Ireland for a cell plug queen rearing system that is designed and manufactured by Nicot in France.  Elsewhere in the world it is called “Cupularve”.  As a system I like it, but I think you need to be raising a…

Reserve signage, Oban ferry terminal CONSERVING BLACK BEES (Apis mellifera mellifera) in the Hebrides, Scotland by ANDREW ABRAHAMS, via the American Bee Journal Readers might ask, why on earth spend much of a lifetime con­serving what most beekeepers perceive as an aggressive, unproduc­tive race of honey bee — a race per­haps left behind by history?…

22nd Sept       “The National Bee Improvement Programme – Outline”  Jo Widdicombe 940 5857 4625

29th Sept        “More details of the National Bee Improvement Programme and Participation”     Jo Widdicombe

6thOct            “Global pandemics, bee imports and native bees”    Norman Carreck

13th Oct          “My 50 years experiences of imported bees affecting local stock”        Peter Jenkins

20th Oct          “Resilient Honeybees”    Grace McCormack

27th Oct          “Where we are, how we got here and how we can move on…….”    Roger Patterson

3rd Nov           “Some Fresh Ideas for Teaching and Learning”    Roger Patterson

10th Nov         “Bees and queens for everyone”   Roger Patterson

17th Nov         “Answering Your Questions”        All Speakers

The National Bee Improvement Programme (NatBIP) The National Bee Improvement Programme is intended to provide a platform for the sustainable improvement in the quality of our honey bees. In recent years imports of bees into the UK have continued to increase, mostly of non-native European sub-species. Ireland has also experienced a steady, but more modest,…