Scottish Beekeepers' Association Supporting Scotland's Bees and Beekeepers |
Young Beekeeper Photo Competition
At the 2022 Royal Highland Show we plan to have a display in our honey tent of photographs by our young beekeepers showcasing My Beekeeping Highlights, 2021.
We would love our young beekeepers to submit 3 photographs which show them beekeeping this year, along with an explanation of what they are doing or seeing.
The Scottish Beekeepers' Association is supported by Paraffle Embroidery, who have created several Bee embroidery kits for beginners.
The Bee design is available as an embroidery hoop, tote bag, cushion, or banner, and all kits are plastic free and carbon neutral.
A portion of the proceeds from each kit will be donated to the Scottish Beekeepers Association.
We are truly grateful to Paraffle for this most generous support.
To view the range please visit https://paraffle-embroidery.com/collections/embroidery-kits/bee
Dear all,
Scottish Government bee inspectors are currently following up several localised foulbrood outbreaks across Scotland and we would like to remind you all of the importance of registering and keeping apiary locations up to date in BeeBase to assist us with controlling disease.
Registration in BeeBase is currently voluntary; however, it is the best available tool we have for identifying hives and apiaries which might have been in contact with foulbrood disease.
Whilst the majority of beekeepers are registered and keep their records up to date in BeeBase, there are still some beekeepers who are not doing so. Registration in BeeBase is free, quick and easy, and please let me assure you that is secure.
Being able to identify all contact colonies is vitally important for any disease control effort. BeeBase identifies all registered beekeepers and apiaries within a radius of a positive case of foulbrood and sends an alert email to those within 3km.
Those within 3km of a positive apiary will receive, as soon as possible, an inspection by the bee inspectors. This is because the risk of their bees having been in contact with infected colonies is inversely proportional to the distance to the infected apiaries, i.e. the closer your apiary is to an infected site, the higher the possibility of contact, for example, through swarm collection or robbing weak infected colonies.
If beekeepers are not registered in BeeBase, or their apiary locations are not up to date, we are unable to identify them as at risk and they might remain infected as a point of permanent re-infection for all beekeepers in that area. Time may also be lost trying to arrange inspections for apiaries which are no longer active, putting extra strain on our limited resources.
Therefore please could we ask you that you:
• Register in BeeBase if not currently registered.
• De-register from BeeBase when you stop beekeeping.
• Keep your current apiary locations up to date.
• Mark as non-current those apiaries which you no longer use.
• Keep your number of hives as up to date as possible for each apiary.
And of course, if at any time you suspect any signs of notifiable disease, please contact us at bees_mailbox@gov.scot
From the Bee Health Improvement Team we would like to thank you for your cooperation and playing your part in keeping Scotland’s bees free of notifiable diseases and pests.
Together we can make a difference!
Best Regards,
Luis Molero Lopez.
Lead Bee Inspector for the Scottish Government.
Secondary Schools Calligram Competition
How would you like to get creative with your honeybee knowledge and enter our Calligram competition?
We’re looking for S1-S6 year pupils to create a honey bee Calligram
Following earlier surveys of members carried out on behalf of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association and reported on in The Scottish Beekeeper magazine and elsewhere, we are repeating the exercise in 2020. This is our 13th year of the survey! The responses provide a valuable picture of beekeeping in Scotland, with a strong focus on colony losses and colony management practice. Data from this survey will also contribute, in anonymised form, to our annual data return to the COLOSS group's international database used to study colony losses and potential risk factors for colony loss. This provides valuable information on colony losses in many different countries.
We are asking for your participation in the survey online, which we have found to be a fast and efficient way to carry out the survey. We very much hope that you will take a few minutes to fill in the responses. There are a few questions for non-beekeepers and relatively new beekeepers, as well as more questions for established beekeepers in Scotland. If you have the relevant information to hand, the full survey (consisting of 15 short question groups) should take no more than about 15 minutes. It is possible to re-visit earlier questions if you need to do that, using the options at the foot of the page.
The diagram above may be helpful in completing the colony loss questions.
You will be given an opportunity to provide us with your contact details, but if you choose not to do so, there is no way in which the survey organisers can link you with the responses you have given.
If you supply your contact details, and submit your answers to the questions before Wednesday June 17th, you will be entered into a prize draw for a £50 Gift Voucher for Beekeeping Equipment kindly supplied by Thornes of Wragby and Newburgh.
To participate, please click on the link here or on the image above.
Thank you very much for your time.