You will need to register and join Beebase and it will ask the location of your hives. This is not ‘Big government’ instead it will alert you to an outbreak of European foul brood (EFB) or American foul brood (AFB) near to you so you can step up your bio-security measures. Remember if you suspect this disease in your colonies this is a notifiable disease which you must report to the Bee Inspector.
If you get called by the Regional Bee Inspector- don’t panic – this person is a very experienced beekeeper who can offer help and advice on your colonies and can help improve your bee husbandry. You can also call the Bee Inspector yourself, their contact details are on the Beebase website, there are also seasonal Bee Inspectors, employed for the summer months, who may visit you or you can ask for advice.
The website has really helpful pictures of different diseases to help identification, a varroa mite fall calculator so you can work out when and if to apply treatments as well as advice for new beekeepers, and other advice like dealing with swarms, queen rearing and printable advisory leaflets. You can set up alerts for any sightings of Asian hornet as well.