Saturday 18th August 2018         

The British Beekeepers Association ( BBKA) which represents more than 25,000 beekeepers is celebrating National Honeybee Awareness Day on August 18th by asking the public to make sure they plant for pollinators.

The recent hot, dry weather has stressed bees as plants dried up and stopped producing nectar and pollen.

Plants that traditionally help pollinators at this time of year are Asters, Michaelmas Daisy, Catmint, Cosmos, Ox-eye Daisies and Goldenrod. Climbers include Autumn Clematis , Black-eyed Susan Vine, Common Ivy and Passion Flower.

Honeybee on Passion Flower

You can help in the early part of next year to make sure that all pollinators have a good start by planting Cyclamen, Hellebore, Snowdrops, Winter Crocus,  Winter Jasmine, Winter honeysuckle, and Winter Flowering Cherry.  

If you would like to support honeybees you can Adopt a Beehive with the BBKA near you and support vital research into honeybee health and education into good bee husbandry https://www.bbka.org.uk/adopt-a-beehive-info

Bad winter last year

We had a particularly bad winter last year with up to a quarter of all colonies being lost mainly due to the weather.

The BBKA is responding to concerns about climate change by setting up training for beekeepers to raise their own climatically adapted queen bees in the UK. This will start next year where training at 6 centres will lead to 72 beekeepers confident in raising new queens in their club apiaries and make them avalable to beekeepers who need them.

It’s hoped that the theory sessions will start during the winter. This programme ‘Queen Rearing for Beginners’ will concentrate on beekeepers with a small number of colonies and use the likes of the Miller method which requires no special equipment and is suitable for someone who just wants to raise a few queens. There will be no grafting involved.

BBKA Chairman, Margaret Wilson, said: “We are hoping to cascade this out across the country if it is successful, so we are putting plans in place to start this early next year in oder to take advantage of the beekeeping season in 2019.”

More information will be available soon in BBKA News and on the website www.bbka.org.uk

For further information & interviews please contact:

Diane Roberts (Press Officer) 07841-625797

[email protected]