Congratulations! Great decision! You have made a great choice. Barnsley BKA is a great place to start your beekeeping journey! Once you have paid your membership, you will have full access to all the benefits of being a Barnsley member. What next? Now that you have your membership, which includes…
Bigger queens, better queens – part 3
The qualities of the queen – her fecundity, longevity, genetics etc. – are the most important influence on colony ‘success’.You could measure that success in terms of reproduction (if free-living, does the colony swarm successfully?) or – of more relevance to a beekeeper – by the weight of the honey…
NBU’s Plans for Early Season Surveillance
From the analysis conducted at Fera Science Ltd a number of areas have been identified where there is a low risk that Asian hornet queens have overwintered. In response the NBU are making plans to carry out spring trapping, including how to work collaboratively with stakeholders to monitor traps at…
Bees in the News – #1
Welcome to the first of the irregular Bees in the News newsletters. These will appear – at most – monthly. Each will contain a combination of links and brief comments on topics that may or may not justify a full post at some point in the future. Inevitably – reflecting…
Asian Hornet – April Update
At the beginning of April, the NBU began spring trapping in areas identified as high risk. Traps have been set at locations across Kent, East Sussex, Devon and North Yorkshire to monitor for signs of Asian hornet activity. On the 13th of April, a single hornet was caught in one…
Meet the Team
The Officers of the Association The Officers of the Association shall comprise a minimum of Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer and Education Officer. Richard Chairman Val Vice-Chair & Education Officer Gordon Secretary Mike Treasurer The Committee The Committee shall be formed from the Officers above plus any other member(s) the Offices…
February 2023 – 2022 Hive Count
Over 11,000 beekeepers updated their details on BeeBase during the 2022 hive count compared to almost 9,000 in 2021. There are currently more than 48,000 beekeepers registered on BeeBase and approximately 23% of those contacted updated their records. The 2022 hive count produced a figure of 288,311 colonies in the…
Gilbert White’s House
June 2023 Gilbert White’s House and Gardens has just become the first institutional member of the British Beekeepers’ Association for 80 years. Rev. Gilbert White lived mostly in the Hampshire village of Selborne from 1720 to 1793. Also a keen gardener, he began to study nature by close observation –…
Beekeepers call on the public to help fight record Asian hornet invasion
The British Beekeepers’ Association (BBKA) is calling on the public to help fight a major threat to honey bees and other pollinators – Asian hornets.  Numbers of the destructive insect are rising rapidly this summer and more have been detected in the UK this year than in the previous six years…
Hive Count 2023
Over 8,500 beekeepers updated their details on BeeBase during the 2023 hive count compared to over 11,000 in 2022. There are currently more than 49,000 beekeepers registered on BeeBase and approximately 18% of those contacted updated their records. The 2023 hive count produced a figure of 252,577Â colonies in the UK.…