We are now taking forward our flagship National Bee Improvement Programme (NatBIP) into its next phase and, as part of this, we need promote our message about native honey bees and bee improvement to a much wider audience. We are therefore very pleased that Sir Tim Smit (from the Eden Project) offered to help us promote that message through this short video.
It is said that the duty of a gardener (and indeed, a farmer) is to leave the soil in better heart than it was found. As for beekeepers, the same could be said about our bees. It is good to leave better quality bees what than we started with. This could mean more ‘hardy’, ‘pest and disease resistant’, ‘good-tempered’ and ‘productive’ bees, or whatever characteristics we value.
This month Jo gives us his musings on long-term bee improvement as well as answering the question, are queen larvae selected by the beekeeper as good as those selected by the bees? Ashbrow school report their successes in queen rearing- if 10year olds can do it, can’t you?
A project on the Scilly Isles
Questions and Answers
Sustainable beekeeping: Local adaptation and the native sub-species DEFRA’s response to the 10,000+ signatories opposed to the import of package bees, through the loophole of trade between Northern Ireland and Britain, has just been announced. It seems they have gone back on their assurances, made in February, that only queens,…
The ‘Bee Improvement Group’ Handbook
Introduction – Liz Childerley, BIBBA Publicity Officer As we put this NatBIP News edition together, we are forecast near-Mediterranean weather across most parts of the UK, and more importantly for beekeepers, quite a sustained period of warmth over several days. Perhaps these are the right conditions to finally get inside…
Signs of increase It seems we really are on to something with NatBIP – since its launch we now have over 3000 supporters. In addition, BIBBA has increased its membership by nearly fifty percent in the last 12 months. The feedback we have received from supporters and members has been…
The National Bee Improvement Programme The new season is fast approaching and so to allow beekeepers to prepare for participating in NatBIP we have added the NatBIP Record Card and instruction sheet. This will also be available in the NatBIP GUIDE on the BIBBA website. Record Card The card can…
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