One in three mouthfuls of the food we eat is dependent on pollination at a time when a crisis is threatening the world's honey bees.

The BBKA, an educational charity set up in 1874, is the UK's leading organisation representing beekeepers.

We promote

  • the importance of bees in the environment
  • support for beekeepers through education necessary to maintain healthy colonies of honey bees
  • awareness of the craft of beekeeping

On behalf of our members, we lobby Government, the EU and Official Bodies on the importance of  providing adequate funding for honey bee research.
BeeBase is the Fera National Bee Unit website. It is designed for beekeepers and supports Defra, WAG and Scotland's Bee Health Programmes and the Healthy Bees Plan, which set out to protect and sustain our valuable national bee stocks.

Our website provides a wide range of free information for beekeepers, to help keep their honey bees healthy and productive.

Sign up to BeeBase

As well as being able to put the details of your bees and apiaries onto BeeBase including inspections information, you may also be able to arrange an apiary visit from your local inspector who can provide the comprehensive help and advice you need. Please bear in mind that inspectors are very busy with a prioritised inspection programme and that it may not be possible to arrange these visits straight away. This workload means that they will usually only arrange a visit if they think it necessary to see the colonies first hand.

Local Beekeeping Associations