A note about the SBA/COLOSS survey of beekeepers in Scotland

As regular readers of The Scottish Beekeeper will know, the SBA/COLOSS survey runs each year in spring, primarily with a focus on experience of colony losses over winter, however the questions also ask about wider beekeeping experience and management practices. The results are analysed at Scottish level, but data representing responses from a subset of the questions are sent for analysis together with similar data from other countries participating in the COLOSS (www.coloss.org) colony loss monitoring surveys. COLOSS is an international research association which links scientists and others who are active in studying honey bee colony losses. In 2018 there were 36 countries in total taking part in those monitoring surveys, mostly but not all in Europe. This joint analysis allows international comparison of winter loss rates. While a few areas have consistently high loss rates, in general the countries with relatively high or low loss rates differ in different years, most probably due to changing weather and other environmental factors. Scotland has been participating in the COLOSS surveys since 2010.