I am writing on behalf of the National Honey Monitoring Scheme. We are a citizen science project based at the UK Centre of Ecology & Hydrology working with beekeepers from all over the UK to collect honey samples for pollen and pesticide analysis. The pollen analysis is to find out what honeybees are feeding on and whether this changes through time, between regions or according to land use surrounding the hive. The pesticide analysis is to find out what pesticides honeybees are exposed to while they are foraging – whether these are pesticides that are currently in use or banned pesticides persisting in our environment – and whether these pesticides have an effect on the health and longevity of hives.

I am getting in touch because for this year’s sample collection we would love to have an equal representation of beekeepers taking part from all over the UK. In previous years, participation has been heavily biased towards the South East and South West regions of England and have dropped off the further north we go.  In previous years there have been few samples from Wales and we are hoping that more Welsh Beekeeper will send us samples in the future.

Our website is https://honey-monitoring.ac.uk/ and if beekeepers do wish to participate, they can click the “Taking Part” link to create an account and request a sampling pack.

Dr Jennifer Shelton

Molecular Ecologist

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology