Inverness-shire Beekeepers Association

27/10/2026

19th November, webinar on inspections, the why and wherefor, free to join, thank you to Welsh Beekeepers Association

Very pleased to invite you to register for our next webinar on 19th November

Carrying out inspections - the why and the how with Lynfa Davies, Master Beekeeper, NDB.

Inspecting our colonies is one of the joys of beekeeping. We get up close and personal with our bees and learn about their lives. But why do we actually need to intrude and what is the purpose of an inspection? This webinar is aimed at beekeepers looking to improve their skills and we will start by looking at some of the behaviours that underpin the workings of a colony of bees and what might impact those behaviours. As usual this webinar is open to every one and free to attend, so please distribute this invitation widely and register your place now!

Lynfa lives near Aberystwyth in mid Wales and has kept bees for 20 years. She is a Master Beekeeper and in 2019 was awarded the National Diploma in Beekeeping.

Lynfa has 30 colonies which she manages for honey production and for the joy of looking after bees! She raises her own queens and uses these to produce nucleus colonies and to replace her own stock. In Spring 2022, Lynfa’s first book, The Miller method of queen rearing, was published by Northern Bee Books, followed by her second book, The Beekeeping Year, in 2024.

You are invited to register for a Zoom webinar!

When: Nov 19, 2026 07:30 PM London

Topic: Carrying out Inspections, the Why and How with Lynfa Davies

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BfAkLCY5T7y-JOixFOJt3Q

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

--

11/10/2026

Interaction of metal with honey - stainless steel is the best choice.

08/10/2026

Real honey or fake honey?
This article explains about crystalisation, how the nectar source and pollen in your honey facilitates that.
There was a fascinating talk at the SBA Convention on the topic of fake honey. Maybe I could do a summary for you

30/09/2026

This is so very true, and these mites will be extremely hard to spot. We must try to stop them from coming here, and not importing queens is the best way.

We will provide queen rearing advice and guidance.

One simple choice that will help protect our bees.

With the threat of Tropilaelaps edging closer, there's a genuinely powerful step every beekeeper can take and it starts with where we source our queens.

Tropilaelaps can cross borders through illegal imports, so the less we rely on importing queens, the smaller the risk of disease becomes. It's our collective demand for queens that keeps the import market going so if we can reduce the demand, we can reduce the risk.

So when you need a new queen, a trusted local beekeeper should be your first port of call.

A few practical things to consider:
- Aim to overwinter at least one nuc as your own insurance against winter losses. This reduces your reliance on outside suppliers at the very moment demand is highest.
- If you do need to buy in, ask where the queen has come from. Was she imported? A queen offered in early April is unlikely to have been born and mated here in the UK so a few well-chosen questions make all the difference.

The threat from Tropilaelaps is real, but the everyday decisions we make as individual beekeepers add up. Those simple, practical choices really can protect our whole community.

20/09/2026

Excellent weekend at Inverness Botanical Gardens /Floral Hall for our honey show .
Thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend

19/09/2026

Our apiary manager, Alan, putting some decorative finishing touches to his baking entry in today's Honey Show. Results in later, and you can see all the entries this afternoon and tomorrow, at the Botanic Gardens in Inverness.

18/09/2026

In today’s Inverness Courier

14/09/2026

If you are passionate about honey fraud, this free online one day conference in October might be of interest, to see what the EU are doing. Maybe the UK could follow if we keep up the pressure.

What are your thoughts on honey fraud?

The link is in the original comments, and given here as well.

https://apikultura.pl/konferencja-miod-pod-lupa/?jezyk=en&fbclid=IwdGRjcAUUe6FjbGNrBRR7mXBkb2YBZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEearhNSkYFT5gKw-451YG6ofuXFRZDEUiN8_hjVx_Ye-sg86Px1WpKZZy60p4_aem_GhhkVcTiS5VwpO8iSGAIHg

Europe is making some huge changes to honey labelling through the Breakfast Directive.

Consumers are finally getting a much clearer picture of where their honey actually comes from. In some cases, honey sold under familiar, local-looking brands is now being traced back to countries such as China.

The UK isn’t included in these changes, but we now have a chance to watch what happens across Europe before deciding whether to follow.

I find the whole subject fascinating.

There’s a free online conference coming up called Honey Under the Magnifier (27th Oct at 10am - translated live into English), looking at what these changes mean for honey, beekeepers and consumers

If you’re interested in honey, I’d recommend registering and learning as much as you can.

What’s happening in Europe could well be coming to the UK next.

Would you like to see the same level of transparency on honey labels in the UK?

07/09/2026

If the EU is stopping honey imports from Brazil, the UK should probably do the same to avoid being flooded by the honey that they can't sell in Europe.

NEWS: EU suspends honey imports from Brazil

The imported honey story took another interesting turn this week as the EU suspended imports of honey from Brazil.

From 3 September, Brazil is no longer authorised to export honey — along with a number of other animal products — to the EU because it has not provided sufficient guarantees that it complies with new EU requirements on the use of antimicrobials.

This matters because Brazil is a significant honey exporter. In 2024, the EU imported around 2,627 tonnes of Brazilian honey, which enters the European market alongside honey imported from many other countries.

The timing of this decision is particularly interesting for consumers.

This is because of the new EU honey labelling regulations, which came into effect in June. According to the new legislation, the countries of origin of blended honey must now be shown on the jar, together with their percentage contribution. So a blend containing honey from countries such as China, Brazil, Mexico or Argentina is now much easier for consumers to identify.

The new import ban does not mean that Brazilian honey already sitting on supermarket shelves suddenly disappears. But from 3 September, consignments of Brazilian honey cannot enter the EU while Brazil remains unauthorised.

In a week when there has been so much discussion about where supermarket honey actually comes from, this is another reminder of why transparency matters so much in the food chain — whether it is about where our honey comes from or what is actually in it. As consumers, we have a right to know before we buy it.

As consumers, we can decide where we spend our money. If you want to know where your honey comes from, read the country-of-origin information on the jar. You can choose to support the big importers where there is not one drop of Irish honey in the jar. Or you can choose to support Irish bees and Irish beekeepers and buy guaranteed Irish honey from a local beekeeper.