Sustainable Honey Bees CIC

31/10/2025

Discover LocalHoney.uk - Supporting British Beekeepers and the B4 Project Mission

LocalHoney.uk is a national platform connecting the public with genuine British beekeepers.

Beekeepers listed pledge that their honey is produced, extracted, and jarred right here in the UK - helping people find authentic local honey while supporting those who care for our native honey bees.

By choosing local honey, you’re not only enjoying the flavour of your local landscape but also contributing to pollinator awareness and sustainable beekeeping across Britain.

🍯 Visit https://LocalHoney.uk
to find a beekeeper near you or register your own listing.

If you are a beekeeper, you can get a free listing and help to boost your SEO for your website.

28/10/2025

Why Queen Health Matters for a Sustainable Future

New research from the University of British Columbia reveals that viruses can quietly undermine honey bee queens - shrinking their ovaries and reducing key pheromones that hold the colony together. When this chemical signal fades, workers prepare to replace their queen, destabilising the hive.

It’s a reminder that the health of our bees - and our food systems - is rooted in balance, genetics, and ecosystem integrity.

At Sustainable Honey Bees CIC, we see this as another reason to move toward ecological and sustainable beekeeping:
🌱 Supporting locally adapted bees that co-evolve with their environment.
🧬 Reducing dependence on imports and chemical treatments.
🍯 Promoting management practices that protect bee welfare and natural resilience.

The research underscores what we already know: when we interfere too much, we break the natural feedback loops that sustain life. Sustainable beekeeping restores those loops - one hive, one landscape, one generation at a time.

Read more 👉

UBC researchers reveal how viruses shrink honey bee queens’ ovaries and reduce methyl oleate, disrupting colony harmony and triggering queen replacement.

27/10/2025

27/10/2025

What is “immature honey”?

It may look like honey, but it isn’t.

Apimondia warns that harvesting honey too early and artificially drying it violates international honey standards - and deceives consumers.

Learn why authentic, bee-made honey matters 🧡

👉 Read the full story: https://beginner-beekeeping.co.uk/immature-honey/

16/10/2025

The OTS (On-The-Spot) method makes queen rearing simple, natural, and perfectly suited to the UK climate. No grafting. No imports. Just strong, locally adapted queens bred from your own best colonies.

Discover the OTS queen-rearing method adapted for the UK. A sustainable approach to breeding locally adapted honey bee queens that strengthen resilience and reduce dependence on imports.

01/10/2025

After 20 years in France, the Asian hornet has spread nationwide—and it now threatens bees and overall biodiversity. Its stings aren’t inherently more dangerous than those of other hymenopterans, but the risk of allergy and ... Read more

21/07/2025

“The menace is real.” - The Lord Teverson, Member of the House of Lords

We are proud to share this message of support from The Lord Teverson - former Chair of the House of Lords EU Environment Sub-Committee and a long-standing advocate for strong biosecurity, sustainability, and action on invasive species.

Drawing on decades of experience in environmental policy, Lord Teverson warns that the unchecked importation of honey bee queens through the Northern Ireland Loophole poses a real and present danger to our native honey bees.

“If the situation is not tackled immediately,” he writes, “the cost quickly mounts, and the effectiveness of eradication swiftly declines.” His powerful comparison to the UK’s £8 billion foot and mouth crisis reminds us just how high the stakes can be when biosecurity is ignored.

🙏 Please stand with Lord Teverson and many others in calling for action.
✍️ Sign the petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/726878
📚 Read more, including FAQs and expert statements, on the B4 website: https://www.b4project.co.uk/post/petition

12/07/2025

“The timing is urgent.” – Prof. Mairi Knight, University of Plymouth

We’re proud to share a statement of support from Professor Mairi Knight, evolutionary ecologist at the University of Plymouth, whose recent research focuses on honey bees and conservation genetics.

Prof. Knight writes:

“Honeybees and other pollinators already face major challenges brought about by changes to agricultural practices and land usage… Within this context I am highly concerned about the consequences of both the scale, and monitoring, of honeybee imports into the UK.”

“Insufficient resources are available for imports to be adequately and rigorously screened, and there are particular biosecurity issues at currently underregulated entry routes. The most immediate and urgent threat is the typically irreversible introduction of new pests and pathogens… The unique geographic positioning of the UK gives us the opportunity to take preventative action – but the timing is urgent.”

Prof. Knight's research explores how genetic and ecological processes operate in declining populations and how science can inform conservation. She has led and co-supervised major bee-related projects, including genomic studies of Apis mellifera mellifera.

Her message is clear: we must act now to reduce risk and build strong, local queen breeding networks that serve both commercial and hobbyist beekeepers.

✍️ Sign the petition to close the import loophole: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/726878
More information and FAQ: https://www.b4project.co.uk/post/petition

26/06/2025

🚫🐝 Isle of Scilly: A Biosecurity Success Story 🐝🚫
Why are pollinators thriving on the Isles of Scilly while struggling elsewhere? Simple: strong biosecurity, no honey bee imports, and a community that understands the stakes.

Their “ring-fenced” approach has kept out devastating threats like Small Hive Beetle and Tropilaelaps mites — pests that now lurk in southern Italy, southern Russia, and beyond. On the mainland, we're not so lucky. Over 22,000 queen bees were imported into Great Britain via Northern Ireland in 2024 alone, skirting vital inspections.

🌿 What Scilly shows us is that this kind of ecological protection works — and it can work elsewhere too.

🖋️ That's why we've launched a petition to close the NI import loophole and protect native bees across Britain and Ireland.

🎥 Watch the video below to see what’s possible when we take biosecurity seriously — and visit https://www.b4project.co.uk/post/petition to learn more and add your name.

27/05/2025

We want the Government to close what we see as a loophole potentially allowing unchecked honey bee imports from NI into Great Britain. We believe full inspections, destination tracking, bee inspectors in NI, and prioritising local bee breeding are needed to help protect UK bee health.