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University of Plymouth Project

The University of Plymouth in partnership with B4 (a community interest company: Bringing Back Black Bees) and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have started a 4 year PhD project to investigate suggestions from bee-keepers that different sub-species have a suite of different behaviours and characteristics in comparison to other sub-species, and further…

Beekeepers come swarming to the Sustainability days

BIBBA hosted nine events across the country (presented by Roger Patterson) called “Sustainability – Bees and Queens for Everybody using low cost, simple techniques”. Over 1,300 beekeepers at all stages of their beekeeping careers attended the sellout event. The day’s presentation was created by Roger after a Defra survey last year where 4,763 beekeepers fed…

Strategy

Strategy Statement BIBBA supports and promotes the sustainable conservation, restoration, study, selection, and improvement of honey bees that are native to the British Isles and Ireland (often referred to as the European Dark Bee or Apis mellifera mellifera).

Appetitive floral odours prevent aggression in honeybees

Honeybees defend their colonies aggressively against intruders and release a potent alarm pheromone to recruit nestmates into defensive tasks. The effect of floral odours on this behaviour has never been studied, despite the relevance of these olfactory cues for the biology of bees. Here we use a novel assay to investigate social and olfactory cues…

How I select my ‘Breeder Queens’

At the start of a new season I like to make a shortlist of which queens are good enough to breed from, in other words, to become my breeder queens. I do this by looking at the current condition of the colony as well as looking at the record of past performance.

Sustainable Bees & Queens

For Everyone using low-cost, simple methods:
There is growing concern amongst beekeepers of all abilities and experience about the ever-increasing importation of bees and queens. This is on several grounds, including the possibilities of introducing pests, diseases and pathogens, aggression in subsequent generations and the unsuitability to our fickle climate.