Regional Bee Inspector

I had a call yesterday from the Regional Bee Inspector, asking if he could come and inspect my company’s hives. To say I was surprised would be an understatement – we’ve had them less than two weeks!

So why is there a Regional Bee Inspector, and what exactly do they do?

The Regional Bee Inspector works for the National Bee Unit, which is a government funded body, part of the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The NBU’s role is to assist beekeepers and in particular help to prevent the spread of disease between apiaries. So we were very pleased to welcome the inspector to the office car park to see our new bees and offer advice.

He was very happy with the health of both colonies. We asked him if there was a reason for inspecting our bees so soon after we got them. It turns out to be coincidence. The inspection was made because there has been an outbreak of American Foul Brood in the Oldham area, and their policy is to inspect all apiaries in a five mile radius of a notifiable disease outbreak. We just happen to have appeared on their records at about the time the outbreak happened. We were very pleased to hear that there was no sign of disease, which is a good job because the mandatory method of dealing with this disease is destruction of the colonies.

Adding brood boxes

Whilst he was here, we asked advice on adding an “extension” to our bees’ homes. He recommended that we add a second brood box to both hives, which doubles their capacity and will give the bees a great deal more space into which to expand and prepare themselves for the winter. They now have 22 frames onto which to build honeycomb, lay eggs and store food. Below are photos of our hives with the new boxes added on top.