Advisory Leaflets:

• Asian Hornet ID Sheet pdf  & ID Poster pdf
• Managing Varroa pdf (Last updated January 2020)- Please note this leaflet is only available as a pdf;
• Small Hive Beetle pdf (Last updated April 2017);
• Foulbrood Disease of Honey Bees pdf (Last updated April 2017);
• Tropilaelaps: Parasitic Mites of Honey Bees pdf (Last updated April 2017);
• Starting Right with Bees pdf (Last updated December 2016) ;
• Statutory Procedures Advisory Leaflet pdf (Last updated June 2017) - Please note this leaflet is only available as a pdf;
• Contingency Planning Procedures Leaflet pdf (Last updated November 2017) - Please note this leaflet is only available as a pdf;
  
• Common Pests, Diseases and Disorders of the Adult Honey Bee pdf (Last updated June 2017) - Please note this leaflet is only available as a pdf;
• The National Bee Unit pdf (Last updated May 2009) - Please note this leaflet is only available as a pdf.
• Miller Queen Rearing Workbook pdf (issued January 2022) -  Printed copies not currently available

Best Practice Guidelines:

The National Bee Unit has put together a series of Best Practice Guidelines, which will cover the essentials of the craft of beekeeping. These are available below:

• Best Practice Guideline No. 1 - The Essence of Beekeeping (Updated June 2018)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 2 - Handling and Examining a colony of bees (created August 2011)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 3 - Apiary and hive hygiene (updated September 2011)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 4 - Disease recognition (created August 2011)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 5 - Advice for obtaining honey bees  (created August 2011)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 6 - Spring Checks  (updated June 2018)
• Best Practice Guidelines No. 7 a) - Feeding Bees - sugar (created July 2012)
                                                   b) - Feeding Bees - water (created July 2012)
                                                   c) - Feeding Bees - pollen and substitutes (created July 2012)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 8 - Sale of Honeybee Nuclei (created March 2012)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 9 - Small hive beetle - What you need to know (created April 2012)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 10 - Bee Improvement (created July 2012)
• Best Practice Guideline No. 11 - Varroa (created July 2012)

Fact Sheets:

• A Simple Asian Hornet Monitoring Trap pdf
• Acarine (Tracheal Mites) pdf                                       
• Apiary Hygiene and Quarantine pdf  (reviewed January 2022)   - Welsh Version                             
• Bee Medicines pdf   (Updated 2020)                                                             
• Bee Safari's pdf  (Updated 2020)
• Bees pdf                                                      
• Beltsville and Pyrethroid Resistance Testing pdf
• Bumblebees pdf    (reviewed January 2022)     Welsh Version                                                 
• Care of Colonies After Shook Swarms pdf
• Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus pdf
• Control of European Foulbrood pdf    (reviewed January 2022)       Welsh Version                                             
• Control of Small Hive Beetle pdf  (reviewed January 2022)     Welsh Version
• Estimating Varroa mite populations pdf    (reviewed February 2022)   Welsh Version                                                        
• Fumigating Comb pdf
• Helping Bees pdf       (reviewed January 2022)    Welsh Version                                                   
• Hive Cleaning and Sterilisation pdf (reviewed January 2022) Welsh Version
• Open Mesh Floors pdf  (reviewed February 2022) Welsh Version
• Oxytetracycline Treatment of Colonies with European Foulbrood pdf
• Preparing Your Colonies for Winter pdf  (reviewed January 2022)    Welsh Version                                                          
• Queen Trapping pdf                             
• Replacing Old Brood Comb pdf                    
• Shook Swarming pdf (reviewed January 2022) Welsh Version
• Solitary Bees pdf   (reviewed January 2022)           Welsh Version                                                    
• Swarm Control When You Can't Find the Queen pdf
• Using Artificial Swarming for Varroa Control pdf     
• Using Drone Brood Removal for Varroa Control pdf  
• Using Integrated Pest Management for Varroa Control pdf
• Veterinary Medicines Administration Record pdf
• Wasps pdf (reviewed January 2022) Welsh Version
• Wax Moth pdf (reviewed February 2022) Welsh Version

Healthy Bees Plan:

• Beekeeping Essentials Leaflet (created September 2010)
  
  

• Asian Hornet Biology
• Asian Hornet Genetics
• European foulbrood
• Back to Basics EFB
• Varroa - A reportable pest
• NBU Question time 1 – 15/03/2022 – A Hive Autopsy
• Varroa and Authorised Varroacides in the United Kingdom
• Small hive beetle (Aethina tumida)

• How to Heft a Hive 
• Sterilising Brood and Super Frames
• How to wash a bee suit 
• How to clean a smoker
• How to Light a Smoker
• How to Scrape Wooden Equipment
• How to Scorch Wooden Equipment
• A Hive Autopsy – Common causes of winter losses
• How to Make Washing Soda Solution
• Demonstration of How to Assemble Brood Frames
• How to carry out a shook swarm
• Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus - Symptoms and Characteristics
• How to make sugar syrup for late spring and summer feeding
• How to carry out an Alcohol Wash for Monitoring Varroa

International Beekeeping Training Manuals:

The development of this basic beekeeping manual was sponsored by The Waterloo Foundation in 2009 and has been produced in many languages. If you are travelling oversees and wish to print off copies of the relevant manuals to take with you, the PDF versions can be found below.

Shona Advanced Beekeeping Manual
Shona Basic Beekeeping Manual
English Advanced Beekeeping Manual
English Basic Beekeeping Manual
French Advanced Beekeeping Manual
French Basic Beekeeping Manual
Chichewa Basic Beekeeping Manual
Hausa Basic Beekeeping Manual
Kinyarwanda Basic Beekeeping Manual
Swahili Basic Beekeeping Manual

Last updated on 27/06/2022