Honeybees in Crisis

Article from defra’s farming link publication

There is something happening to our Western honeybee ( Apis mellifera) and defra is now taking the issue seriously. The British Beekeepers’ association reported that 30% of the UK’s honeybee colonies were lost during the autumn, winter and spring of 2007/08 and beekeepers were anxiously waiting to see how their bees fare this winter. Chris Hartfield of the NFU says that the loss of the bee populations is now taken seriously and he hopes this will galvanise people into action.

Richard Ball a National Bee Inspector at the National Bee Unit confirms that these bees pollinate many crops from Brassicas, like oilseed rape, and beans through to orchards and soft fruits. The value of this pollination to farmers is between £120 million and £200m and the bees also make over 4,000 tons of honey a year.

The reasons for this decline are still not known but it is suspected to be a combination of several things. The parasitic mite Varroa and its associated virus is known to be destroying hives in this country. Bee loss is not just in this country though. In China and Spain the pathogen Nosma ceranae is thought to be what is destroying hives. In the USA the National Bee Unit has a syndrome they call Colony Collapse Disorder. With all these problems and wet weather the bees are struggling. The EU also suspects some pesticides are affecting the bees as well.

The government is now putting £4.3m extra funding in to support bee health. An extra £400,000 will go into research. £2.3m will go to the National Bee Unit to identify all the bee keepers in the UK and provide training in good husbandry and disease control. To this end defra is encouraging all beekeepers to register on the BeeBase database or phone 01904 462510.

Barbara Mark