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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #5140  by AdamD
 04 Nov 2019, 19:39
The Animal and Plant Health Agency are asking us to update their records of hive count which can be done via Beebase.
http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?

Last year there were an estimated 244,000 colonies of bees in the UK.

If you are not already registered on Beebase, it's worthwhile doing so as you'll get notifications of disease in your area - and there's some good stuff on there too.

Beebase informs me that I have 79 apiaries within 10 km of my home apiary. I don't know whether that's a low or high number. Can anyone compare? Moving towards the coast where I occasionally have bees at the office it's 52.
 #5141  by Patrick
 04 Nov 2019, 20:35
180 apiaries registered on beebase within 10km of me..
 #5144  by nealh
 05 Nov 2019, 00:13
152 it say's for me.
 #5145  by Alfred
 05 Nov 2019, 08:48
I'm currently being harassed/bullied into registering by the local reps which is sadly for them having the exact opposite effect....
 #5146  by NigelP
 05 Nov 2019, 12:56
Not sure how meaningful the apiary numbers per 10k are. It's a huge area and even my remote heather sites where there is at least 5k in any direction of nothing but moorland still shows 40 apiary sites.

IIRC the requirement for determining the number of hives is that it affects the amount of money APHA get from the EU.
The more hives the more money. In many other European countries this money is awarded in grants to beekeepers to help expand their operations or subsidise equipment. In the UK it goes directly into APHA's pocket and we see nothing. Whilst we can blame government funding cuts for the shoestring service they now have, even when well funded nowt ever found its way down to the grass roots.
I think I shall record a negative number :D
 #5147  by Patrick
 05 Nov 2019, 14:38
Wonder if those 40 heather apiary sites represent locations used seasonally and more historically.

I have heard of folk down with issues of summer drought and heather beetle affecting the viability of transporting hives to the moors. Don't know how true that is in practice.
 #5148  by NigelP
 05 Nov 2019, 16:26
On a closer look it's a 10 Km circle, even with say 5km radius of moorland empty (I have sole access so no other legal apiaries on there) ) it still takes in the nearby town of Thirsk and hence the numbers are up. So it;'s not much use, far better to give density of say 1/2 that radius.
Moving back home where Thirsk is about 5k away the number increase to 50 apiaries. And I know the nearest 4 beekeepers are 2km and 4km away.
It would be a very useful tool if you could adjust the radius and see what is in your immediate vicinity.
 #5149  by AdamD
 05 Nov 2019, 17:09
There must be a measure of distance in the software somewhere as I have had warnings of EFB within 3 km of my home apiary.
I bet Nigel, there will be some apiaries nearby that you don't know exist. I expect there will also be some that were listed some time ago and have not had bees for years.
 #5162  by DianeBees
 08 Nov 2019, 11:44
Alfred wrote:
05 Nov 2019, 08:48
I'm currently being harassed/bullied into registering by the local reps which is sadly for them having the exact opposite effect....

local reps of where?

Why wouldn't you register?


No. of other apiaries within a 10KM radius: 249