BIBBA Groups Newsletter March 2026
BIBBA Groups newsletter
In this third issue (March 2026):
- Letter from the admin
- What can we learn from Ireland?
- Rebounding from winter losses
- Our new WhatsApp channel and guide for Groups
- Useful resources
- Coming soon
Letter from the admin
The mild but wetter than average winter in many parts of the country has given way to spring, but I have heard some sad and alarming stories of winter losses in some areas. I very much hope that your breeding or bee improvement project has come through stongly.
In the project I manage the winter loss is about 15%, but we haven't lost any queen lines, which means we're in a strong position as we head into the third year of the project with the aim of starting to disemminate queens and nucs to local club members.
A good piece of advice I had from an experienced beekeeper was that the key to dealing with winter losses is how well you recover from them and there's an article below with some thoughts.
Thank you to all the groups who joined our winter forum last month. It was good to see faces from both established and new groups and it was a really constructive conversation and good to find out more about what you would like from BIBBA in terms of support. I know that at least two neighbouring groups have connected and are helping each other, which is what it's all about
In the what's new section below you'll see two features - one we've launched and one we're planning to launch imminently - as a result of the conversation.
I would really like to connect with many more of you, so if you missed out on the forum please do get in touch with me with any thoughts, suggestions or just a for a chat and a project update. You can reach me on
Learnings from Ireland
I have just returned from the annual Native Irish Honey Bee Society (NIHBS) conference in Athlone, Ireland, where I caught up with many Irish beekeepers and the NIHBS team. Apart from the typical Irish hospitality and friendliness, here are some of the key learnings I took away from the lectures and my many conversations:
- Ireland is in a better place than the UK when it comes to having more pure (or purer) Apis mellifera mellifera colonies, but that is under threat as there are plenty of imports coming into the country and causing introgression in some areas.
- There are many beekeepers passionate about protecting the native bee and there's a bill still going through the Irish parliament to protect them and to ban imports. It still has a way to go and so they're working hard to keep the momentum going.
- NIHBS runs an excellent queen rearing group scheme, although it's slightly different from our BIBBA Groups offering. There's a lot we can learn from each other and I've been communicating a lot with the NIHBS member who runs the scheme to see how we can learn and from and help each other. If anyone wants to know more at this stage, please get in touch.
- They are very interested in varroa resistance and Professor Stephen Martin and Steve Riley, author of The Honeybee Solution to Varroa, were very warmly received when they gave talks at the conference. There's an excellent WhatsApp group with lots of experts and beekeepers from Ireland and beyond focusing on the subject and helping each other as they transition to varroa resistant bees and apiaries.
- They're also very focused on the threat from Asian Hornets (or yellow-legged hornets) after two nests were confirmed and eradicated in Ireland last summer. They're learning fast from the experiences in Jersey and in the southest of the UK as they put their own plan in place to keep them at bay.
- Professor Grace McCormack, head of the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Galway and a passionate researcher and supporter of the native Amm bee, announced a new five-year project working with teams in the US and Northern Ireland to look at how several factors may be affecting the reproductive health of honeybee queens and drones. I can't wait to see the results from this research as it emerges as it will be relevant for us all as bee breeders. As Roger Patterson has flagged since the turn of the century, reproductive health is not what it was and there are increasing problems with queens and mating that are contibuting to already high colony losses. You can see one of Roger's posts on the issues here: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/rogerpatterson.html
Group resilience
Winter losses are sad and frustrating, and in some cases they can be devastating. But they'll never go away completely as it's a part of natural selection. Losses can be caused by all sorts of things from queen issues to pests and disease to the conditions the previous summer and even the actions of the beekeeper.
There's no doubt though that winter losses in the US, where large-scale migratory beekeeping practices put huge stresses on the bees, are way too high. And in the UK, winter losses help drive the model of many beekeepers replacing their stocks with non-native bee types year after year and experiencing higher than average losses as they struggle to adapt to the British winter.
For bee breeders and bee improvement projects, winter losses can be a set-back, but they should also prompt thinking about how winter loss, or even a colony that only just got through, might influence selection and bee improvement choices for the year ahead.
It also raises questions about the overall resilience of our groups in the face of factors including losses, disease, or issues with queen lines.
Here are some potential questions we could ask ourselves?
- How are we measuring and recording winter performance and subsequent spring build up? Are we comparing our data with the regional winter loss data from surveys?
- How do we share and accept loss information between group members?
- Is winter performance a trait we should be selecting for if we aren't already?
- Do we have a queen line showing many of our desired traits but consistently struggling through a typical British winter?
- What are we doing that could be influencing winter performance? Are we going into winter with strong colonies or are late manipulations leaving them susceptible?
- Are we producing enough over-wintered nucs to both cover our own project losses while providing bees for our recipients the following spring?
- Should we overwinter nucs as a matter of course to reduce the impact of future events?
- What can we learn from surveys of winter losses in local free-living colonies and confirmed varroa resistant colonies?
- Our our colonies in hives having to be regularly fed to get them through winter or are they surviving with their own income?
- Should we rear more queens early in the season from the best stock (accelerated bee improvement and bee breeding)?
- Should we share genetic material between groups to improve resilience?
There will be many more questions we could ask, but over-wintering in a country where the beekeeping season lasts for no more than six months is a vitally important consideration for any bee breeding or bee improvement project.
It could be one of the early topics in our new WhatsApp group? (see below).
What's new?
WhatsApp:
One of the suggestions that was well received at the recent winter forum meeting was the creation of a WhatsApp group for BIBBA Groups leads and team members. I am a member of some beekeeping WhatsApp groups already and I have to say all of them are really good with a mix of experiences and beekeeping types and a willingness to share and debate ideas. Therefore I will create a WhatsApp group for us.
If you would like to join please can you message me on 07771 773579 and I will add you to the group. I hope everyone will join and please invite your team members and together we can create an informative and co-operative communication channel.
Updated guide for groups:
We have updated the BIBBA guide to forming and running bee improvement groups. Whilst we expect it to be most useful for newer groups and those just starting out, we would welcome feedback and suggestions from long-running and experienced groups.
Please contact me on group- with any ideas or suggestions as we want to iteratively improve the guide.
Useful resources:
Here's our pick of some useful videos from the bee improvement playlist on our YouTube channel:
Breeding out bad traits in honey bees - Pete Sutcliffe
How to assess a colony of honey bees
Spotting varroa resistant traits in your honey bee colonies
Coming soon
Guides:
We are currently creating two guides for our groups - one on adding varroa resistance as a selection trait in your bee improvement program and a second on how free-living bees can influence a breeding project.
If you have any suggestions for future guides, please contact me at
Case study:
I hope to publish the next of our case studies soon so that we can continue to share experiences with the network. I hope you enjoyed the first one. If anyone would like to provide an update on their group or project, please get in touch and I will share a template that can easily be filled in.
