Bee Health Improvement Partnership (BHIP) Annual Report 2025

Achievements and progress

Education and Events

Association-led Bee Health Days

Building on the success of 2024, the SRUC Bee Health Advisor, Lorraine Johnston, provided assistance to five association-led Bee Health Days. To further build on this success four association-led Bee Health Days have already been confirmed for 2026, including SSBKA, Kilbarchan, Newbattle and Perth.

ApiScotia

The Scottish Beekeepers Association lead Apiscotia event took place the first weekend in May 2025, aiming to teach intermediate practical and theory skills to around 50 participants from across Scotland over 3 days. Topics taught this year included disease inspections, shook swarm, varroa control, swarm management, queen rearing and increase, adult and brood diseases, and honey bee genetics. The course involved a mixture of apiary visits, practical activities and lectures.

Attendance at events

SNHBS ran a Queen Rearing Workshop at Whitmuir Farm, Lamancha, on 29^th June 2025 to spread skills on queen raising via grafting, mating in nucleus boxes and queen handling including marking, clipping and introduction. Fourteen beekeepers came and returned very complimentary feedback. This workshop continued the spread of such events across the country, prioritising advertising via association secretaries in South East Scotland.

Scottish Beekeepers’ Association Annual Convention

The Scottish Beekeepers Association Annual Convention took place in Kinross in October 2025. At the convention, the Honey Bee Health Team was represented by Bee Inspectors. The team hosted an informative stand featuring posters and leaflets to raise awareness about on responsible beekeeping, BeeBase, notifiable diseases and pests and yellow legged hornet.

The Scottish Beekeepers’ Association

January 2025

• Hosted a free webinar on ‘Propolis’ with James Fearnley (all SBA webinars are open to anyone, anywhere in the world).

February 2025

• Hosted two free webinars, one on ‘Beebytes Social Enterprise’ with Mark Barnett and Matthew Richardson, the other on ‘Transitioning to Varroa Resistant Colonies’ with Steve Riley.

March 2025

• Theoretical Module Exams held for SBA members, covering the following subject matter: Honey Bee Management, Honey Bee Products & Forage, Honey Bee Diseases, Pests & Poisoning, Honey Bee Biology, Plants & Pollinators, Honey Bee Behaviour, Selection & Breeding of Honey Bees, Beekeeping & Honey Bee Management
• Hosted a free webinar on ‘The Jersey Asian Hornet Group’ with John De Carteret
• Ran a 2-day Microscopy workshop, for beekeepers who have an interest in pollen, anatomy and disease relevant to the honeybee, and keen to sit the SBA Microscopy exam.

April 2025

• Ran a 1-day Wax Workshop in Inverness covering the production of beeswax candles, wired foundation, polish, flowers, and wraps
• SBA AGM at SRUC Barony in Dumfries with guest speaker Maggie Gill discussing Tropilaelaps and her work to date
• Hosted a free webinar on ‘An Introduction to Top Bar Beekeeping’ with Phil Chandler.

May 2025

• ApiScotia intermediate practical beekeeping weekend covering the following topics: Adult & Brood Diseases, Reading & Manipulating a Colony, Increasing Colonies, Teaching Varroa, Shook Swarms, Fumigating Comb, Nutrition, Mentoring, Genetics, Drone Laying Colonies, Disease Inspection, Beekeeper Safety and Prevention is Better than Cure

June-Aug 2025

• Practical exams for hobby beekeepers wishing to pass their Junior, Basic, Intermediate and Apiarian exams.

June 2025

• Over 250 SBA volunteer beekeepers from across Scotland (and beyond) set up and manned the Honey Tent at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh. Around 10,000 visitors enjoyed the tent every day, and were educated on all things honey bees, bees, beekeeping and honey. School beekeeping clubs and young beekeepers were there to volunteer and engage with the many school parties who toured the tent as part of the RHET programme.

July 2025

• 3 young beekeepers and 2 adult team leaders represented Scotland at the home nations IMYB (International Meeting of Young Beekeepers) competition in Belfast.

September 2025

• Ran a 1-day Honey Workshop in Kinross-shire, teaching how to ‘Produce, Harvest, Extract & Filter, Blend/Seed and Prepare for Market’
• Several SBA members and trustees attended Apimondia in Copenhagen, with many involved in the event.

October 2025

• SBA Microscopy exam, held in Broxburn, where the candidate’s knowledge and skills were put to the test through a series of practical tasks along with an oral examination
• SBA Annual Convention in Kinross, on the theme of Quality Matters with guest lectures Prof Steve Martin and Meghan Denver and talks on ‘The Ongoing Arms Race between Honeybees and the Varroa mite’, ‘Insect Cuckoos and the World of Chemical Recognition’, ‘Beekeeping for Rural Development: The Opportunities and Challenges in Africa’ and also ‘Practical Considerations of Genetics in Sustainable Beekeeping’. There were also practical workshops on Mead Making and Entering Honey Competitions, and several trade and not-for-profit stands
• Scottish National Honey Show ran at the same time and place.

November 2025

• Second diet of module theoretical exams
• Hosted a webinar, The Arctic Beekeeper with Einar Johansen, Norway.

December 2025

• Hosted a webinar on the Cocos Keeling Bee Project with Paula Carnell.

Scottish Native Honey Bee Society

The Scottish Native Honey Bee Society ran a Queen Rearing Workshop at Whitmuir Farm, Lamancha, on 29^th June 2025 to spread skills on queen raising via grafting, mating in nucleus boxes and queen handling including marking, clipping and introduction. Fourteen beekeepers came and returned very complimentary feedback. This workshop continued the spread of such events across the country, prioritising advertising via association secretaries in South East Scotland.

Honey Bee Health Team

Bee inspectors attended the SBA convention at Kinross in October 2025 with a stand providing information on notifiable diseases and pests, and yellow legged hornets.

Bee inspectors attended the Smallholders Festival in October 2025 providing information on responsible beekeeping, BeeBase, notifiable diseases and pests and yellow legged hornet.

Bee Inspectors, along with SASA and SRUC colleagues, attended the Bee Farmers Association convention in Newark in December 2025. SASA presented a talk on the foulbrood situation in Scotland and the 2024 EFB survey. Together with two representatives from the Bee Inspectorate, they also manned a SG bee health team stand at the conference, presenting the Varroa and EFB maps.

We also provided a programme of winter talks in 2025 delivered by both SG and SRUC. These tool place where either local beekeeping associations had asked us along to speak about a certain topic (notifiable disease, yellow legged hornet, managing varroa etc), or where a specific need was identified which involved targeting a local association for a specific purpose, for example high levels of disease in the area.

Looking towards 2026 we already have a number of events we will be attending. Our SRUC Bee Health Advisor will be delivering three Farm Advisory Service events on pollinators and an introduction to beekeeping. Preparations are also underway for the 2026 Annual Bee Health day to be held in Inverness. Bee Inspectors will also be attending Scone Palace Garden Fair and North Scotland Gardening show to raise awareness of Yellow Legged Hornet.

Availability of and access to education

During 2025, the Bee Health Advisor has continued to develop podcasts to make beekeeping education more fully accessible to all Scottish beekeepers. They aim to produce a new podcast every two months. To listen to the Bee Health Advisors podcasts, please visit the SRUC website.