Moving honeybee colonies — between apiaries, to pollination contracts, or across borders — is not just a logistics problem, it is a regulatory one. This scene models a hive convoy travelling down a compliance corridor lined with four checkpoints that real beekeepers must clear: BeeBase registration (the UK's voluntary beekeeper database used for disease alerts), an export health certificate confirming the colony is disease-free, a phytosanitary-style certificate required by some destination countries, and a customs declaration for crossing outside the UK's domestic market.
Post-Brexit, moving bees or bee products from Great Britain into the EU generally requires an official export health certificate and, in many cases, phytosanitary-type paperwork — the same categories of document that once applied only to trade with non-EU countries. BeeBase registration is voluntary in England but effectively expected practice everywhere, since it is how APHA issues disease outbreak alerts.
A hive convoy drives down a compliance corridor lined with four real-world checkpoints — BeeBase registration, an export health certificate, a phytosanitary certificate and a customs declaration — and only passes the ones its paperwork actually satisfies.
Different routes carry different legal obligations: a domestic move within England and Wales needs far less paperwork than crossing into the EU or further afield. The simulation shows which documents are required per route and blocks the convoy wherever a required document is missing.
Pick a route, then toggle each document on or off. Watch the barrier at each checkpoint glow red and stay shut if a required document is missing, or lift and turn green once you've supplied it.
Since the UK left the EU, moving bees or bee products from Great Britain into the EU has generally required export health certification and, in many cases, phytosanitary-style paperwork — categories that previously only applied to trade with non-EU countries.