About your Bees and Medication

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) is a government agency which controls the medicines used on - amongst other things - your bees. This is important because bees should not come to harm from medications   intended to help them, either because they are stored badly or misused, and these medicines should not affect humans who consume bee products.

If a product is licensed this does not rule out the possibility of negative reactions from certain individuals or circumstances. In these situations it is important firstly to prevent harm, and secondly to establish what went wrong, then use the protocol established by the VMD and operated by a licensed distributor like Bee Equipment Ltd.

Recently E H Thorne have offered Apivar to wholesale and resellers without a license to do so. This practice is not only illegal, it is dangerous for resellers who have no way of reporting any adverse reaction should one happen (this may be due to storage and monitoring issues). This is not just a problem with new products; it has been going on for years. Beekeepers have been using treatments without knowing that further up the supply chain a wholesale retailer was unlicensed to sell the product in the first place.

We go to exacting lengths, and acquire large business expenses, in order to safely and legally offer licensed varroa treatments to wholesale partners who can trust us to be here and legally accountable if the worst were to happen. Our licence has cost us many thousands of pounds in the first instance and several thousand pounds a year to maintain, and we are committed to bees and beekeepers - after all we are beekeepers ourselves.

At Bee Equipment Ltd we pride ourselves on offering a wide range of products to our customers, delivered promptly, and at the best prices in the industry.

We accomplish this through research, trade, and hard work.

But most importantly we adhere to the rules of our industry. We pay our taxes, have veterinary checks on our bees, and license our products.

VMD documentation -

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/687281/242627-v46-GDP_register_of_sites.pdf

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