Dear SBA Member/Local Beekeeping Association Member,
Following earlier surveys of members carried out on behalf of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association and reported on in ``The Scottish Beekeeper'' and elsewhere, we are repeating the exercise in 2026. This is our 19th year of the survey! The responses provide a valuable picture of beekeeping in Scotland, with a strong focus on colony losses and colony management practice.
We are asking for your participation in the survey online, which we have found to be a fast and efficient way to carry out the survey. We very much hope that you will take a few minutes to fill in the responses. There are a few questions for non-beekeepers and relatively new beekeepers, as well as more questions for established beekeepers in Scotland. If you have the relevant information to hand, the full survey (consisting of 15 short question groups) should take no more than about 10 to 15 minutes. It is possible to re-visit earlier questions if you need to do that, using the options at the foot of the page.
You will be given an opportunity to provide us with your contact details, but if you choose not to do so, there is no way in which the survey organisers can link you with the responses you have given.
Please submit your responses by Saturday August 29th.
PLEASE READ THE DATA PRIVACY NOTICE BELOW BEFORE DOING THE SURVEY. Thank you.
Alison Gray,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Strathclyde,
26 Richmond Street,
Glasgow G1 1XH.
DATA PROTECTION AND PRIVACY NOTICE
The purpose of this survey is to collect information about beekeeping experience and practice in Scotland, especially with regard to colony losses. It provides useful information for the SBA and individual members of the SBA, and a wider public and scientific readership, through reports, journal articles and press releases which we produce. The responses to some of the questions are used in the analysis of colony losses internationally, carried out by COLOSS. Currently Alison Gray does that COLOSS analysis.
Any data which is published is in aggregated form, e.g. the overall loss rate of colony losses in Scotland or the proportion of beekeepers who lost colonies. Individual level data are not published.
The data will be held securely on the University of Strathclyde computer servers, and backed up regularly.
Data provided are sometimes used in student projects, however any data passed on for this purpose will be in anonymised form and will not contain any personal details.
The FIRST QUESTION OF THE SURVEY asks you for your consent for us to hold a record of your responses to the questions which you answer, including any personal contact details which you provide. Providing your name and contact details is optional. If you provide them, we can use them to follow up any queries relating to your answers and we can email you summary results when these are available. It is your right to withdraw consent for us to hold your personal data at any time, should you provide any, by contacting Alison Gray (email: a.j.gray@strath.ac.uk).
The anonymised data will form part of a historical record of the results of the surveys which we have now carried out since 2010. We make use of these for ongoing research.
Alison Gray and Magnus Peterson
END OF NOTICE
There are 62 questions in this survey.
