Nectar flow in the regions of Spain

The EU lists four bee diseases that must be watched for everywhere: American foulbrood, small hive beetle (Aethina tumida), Tropilaelaps mites, and varroosis (Implementing Reg. 2018/1882, annex).

If you suspect or find any of these listed diseases you must report it to the competent authority as soon as practicable, and if you see abnormal deaths or serious disease of unknown cause you must report it to a veterinarian (Reg. 2016/429 art. 18(1)(b)-(c)).

Before you start keeping bees you must register your apiary with the competent authority, stating its location and number of colonies, and you must report any later changes (Reg. 2016/429 arts 4, 84).

As a registered beekeeper you need to keep records of your colonies, their movements, deaths, treatments and test results (Reg. 2016/429 art. 102), including, for every migratory move, the place, start and end date and number of hives (Delegated Reg. 2019/2035 art. 27).

Because honey bees are food-producing animals, you must record every veterinary medicine you use (date, product, quantity, supplier, colonies treated, withdrawal period, treatment length) and keep these records for at least five years (Reg. 2019/6 art. 108).

To move bees to another member state you need an animal health certificate from the country of origin, your colonies must show no signs of AFB, small hive beetle or Tropilaelaps, there must have been no AFB reported within 3 km of your apiary in the last 30 days and no small hive beetle or Tropilaelaps within 100 km, and bees can only enter a varroa-free area if they come from another varroa-free area (Delegated Reg. 2020/688 arts 48, 50, 71).

Inspection schedules, reporting channels, deadlines and penalties are set by your own country's national law, so the exact dates and procedures depend on where you keep your bees.

You must register every beekeeping holding (explotación apícola) in the REGA livestock register with your autonomous community, at your tax address or where the hives stand if stationary, stating whether it is migratory (trashumante) or stationary (estante) and whether it is for self-consumption (autoconsumo, at most 15 hives), and report any changes within one month (RD 209/2002 arts 2, 5-6).

Every hive must be marked visibly, legibly and indelibly with your holding code, and if a hive comes from another holding it keeps its old code next to the new one (RD 787/2023 art. 13).

You must keep the holding register book (libro de registro) always up to date, have it ready for any hive movement, and report your hive census to your autonomous community before 1 March every year, counting the hives prepared for wintering as at 31 December (RD 209/2002 art. 7).

Your apiaries must be kept at least 400 m from public buildings and town centres, 100 m from inhabited rural houses and livestock buildings, 200 m from national roads, 50 m from regional roads and 25 m from local tracks, with these road and track distances halved on a slope more than 2 m above the road, and all of them reducible by up to 75% behind a fence at least 2 m high (RD 209/2002 art. 8).

You must treat for varroa at least once a year, normally in September-November unless your autonomous community sets another period, using an authorised veterinary medicine under a veterinarian's supervision, and record the start and end date, type of treatment, dose, number of hives and product name in the register book (RD 608/2006 art. 6 and annex II).

You must urgently report to the competent authority any disease that could endanger your holding (RD 209/2002 art. 10), and you must hygienically clean, disinfect or destroy dead or abandoned colonies as soon as possible, or the authority will do it at your cost (RD 608/2006 art. 5), with an apiary counted as abandoned once more than half its hives are dead (RD 209/2002 art. 2).

If you are a migratory beekeeper moving hives outside your autonomous community, you must send your planned moves for the next three months to your community at least one week before the first move, keep the stamped plan and the register book with the hives during transport, report any change of destination community within 48 hours, and if you are a stationary holding you need an official health certificate before moving hives or swarms, with hives always travelling with the entrance closed or covered by a mesh (RD 209/2002 art. 11).

If your holding has 15 or more hives, you must receive a veterinary animal-health visit (visita zoosanitaria) at a risk-based frequency set by the authority, ranging from every 3 to every 18 months, and keep the signed report for at least three years, while holdings under 15 hives are exempt (RD 346/2025 arts 3, 5, annexes I-II).

Sources: Regulation (EU) 2016/429 (Animal Health Law) · Implementing Reg. (EU) 2018/1882 · Delegated Regs (EU) 2019/2035 and 2020/688 · Reg. (EU) 2019/6 · Real Decreto 209/2002 (explotaciones apícolas) · RD 787/2023 · RD 346/2025 · RD 608/2006 (Programa nacional de enfermedades de las abejas)