Scottish Native Honey Bee Society

Come and join our highly-regarded queen rearing workshop for 2026 at the Alex McLaren Beekeeping Centre at the University of Stirling Campus, Bridge of Allan. This event is a collaboration between the Dunblane and Stirling Beekeepers Association and the Scottish Native Honey Bee Society, aiming to improve the skills of beekeepers to help improve the sustainability of the craft in Scotland and bear down on any perceived need for imports. With the kind support of D&SBA beekeepers and the excellent facilities on offer at their apiary, we hope this year to deliver an event that gives hands-on experience of every facet of the organised production of mated queens. The presenters for this one day event will be experts with long experience of the topic. Expect to have an opportunity to learn and experience:

• practical skills in finding, handling, clipping, marking and introducing mated queens
• the outline of the steps to raise your own queens in an organised way
• why the status of the colony is crucial and how to work with the bees' natural urge to raise queen cells
• practical grafting, the main means of initiating new queen cells from favoured stocks
• the setting up and management of mini-nuclei for the mating of virgin queens
• integrating queen rearing with the maintenance of diversity

Our aim is to show that directed queen rearing really isn't complex and is something that all beekeepers should try. Equipment necessary for the day will be provided; we just ask that you bring a clean, freshly laundered bee suit. Lunch is not provided and participants are encouraged to bring their own. (??Hot drinks will be provided??)

The presenters and the local organisers are giving their time free of charge. After costs, any surplus will be shared between D&SBA and SNHBS. The event is suitable for beekeepers of all levels of experience but the best use of the training will be by those who plan to begin actively queen rearing in the near future.

Numbers are limited for this event, so that participants can benefit from small-group tuition.

Bookings are only completed after you submit the form on this page *and* the payment of the fee is made to the SNHBS Bank Account. If bookings are not completed within 3 days, the provisional registration will be cleared for another applicant.

The cost is £60 for D&SBA or SNHBS members. Non-members may attend for £72 - but this can be reduced by joining either organisation.

In the event of a weather-induced cancellation, which may be made a few days before the event, registration fees will be refunded. No other refunds will be offered.

Account name: SNHBS

Sort Code: 08 92 99

Account number: 65821075

Please give your surname as the reference.

Images from previous workshops can be seen here: Shared Queen Rearing pictures (note from GR: I need to edit the pics in this folder)

All three instructors feature in Maxim Nekliudov's film Natives.