Natural England has now finalised the grower class licence required to release non-native bumblebees during the period April to December 2014.
This licence does not place any conditions, restrictions or reporting requirements on the use of the hives containing commercial native British bumblebee Bombus terrestris audax. Growers who are only using B t audax do not need to register under this class licence and are not required to submit annual reports.
Most of the changes to the licence change what was existing industry guidance into licence conditions. Natural England is due to email the updated grower class licence directly to those growers who registered to continue to release non-native bumblebees in 2014.
Growers should pay particular attention to the following:
- Ensure your supplier provides written confirmation that bumblebees supplied are free of viable pathogens listed in condition 2 of the licence.
- Ensure that you only use hives that have the information detailed in condition 6 of the licence printed on the outside of the hive.
- Ensure the hives have a queen lock operating as per the requirements of condition 7 of the licence.
- Ensure individual hives are closed and removed from the crop by the 70th day after introduction, as per condition 8 of the licence. This condition also sets out how the bumblebees are to be killed after use.
- Condition 9 detailing the need to correctly dispose of non-native hives after use.
Defra will be shortly carrying out a consultation exercise on the future regulatory regime covering commercial pollination bumblebees. When this is launched, the NFU will be seeking comments from growers.