Importing bees into Scotland: guidance

Honey bees and bumble bees from New Zealand must:

Come from a breeding apiary, which is supervised and controlled by the competent authority;

In the case of honey bees, hives come from an area which is not the subject of any restrictions associated with an occurrence of AFB, and where no such occurrence has taken place within at least 30 days prior to the issue of the present certificate. Where an outbreak of AFB has occurred previously, all hives within a 3km radius have been checked by the competent authority and all infected hives burned or treated and inspected to the satisfaction of the competent authority within 30 days following the last recorded case;

Be from hives or come from hives or colonies (in the case of bumble bees) which were inspected immediately prior to despatch (normally within 24 hours) and show no clinical signs or suspicion of disease including infestations affecting bees;

Travel with packaging material, queen cages, accompanying products and food which are new and have not been in contact with diseased bees or brood combs and where all precautions have been taken to prevent contamination with agents causing diseases or infestations of bees.