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The plight of the honeybee
OVER the last two years the UK bee population has plunged by a worrying 15 per cent – it is estimated that two billion bees perished last year alone.
Experts have been predicting that without some kind of intervention, bees could be an endangered species by the end of the next decade.
If that happened the consequences could be catastrophic – losing their pollinating skills would pose a very real threat to our ability to grow food.
Luckily things seem to have turned something of a corner, or at least they will if we continue enjoying a hot and partly humid summer. Those certainly seem to be the predictions.
Retired firefighter Robin Tomlinson of Allerton Bywater has been a beekeper for more than 40 years and he's hopeful the soaring temperatures could turn things around.
"Nature is incredibly resilient," he said. "It has a remarkable way of changing even within the space of a week or two, certainly since May I've seen a major improvement in the number of swarms around.
"Although it was quite a cold winter – which is actually good for the bees because it reduces the number of other pests around – it wasn't a very good spring for them.
"But the warm temperatures combined with quite a bit of humidity are perfect for them to flourish, the only hope now is that it doesn't get too hot or get too dry because bees just don't like the extremes."
Not only has Mr Tomlinson, a member of the Leeds Beekeepers Association, reported larger numbers of bees he's already seen improvements in honey yields – a major indicator of the prosperity of the insects.
One of the biggest threats to their survival is disease. The worst culprit is the varroa mite, a tiny insect which lives off the bodily liquids of bees in the hive and was first found on these shores back in 1992.
"The varroa mite has spread to most areas of the world where honey bees are kept and it is present on all continents except Australia," said a spokesman for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
"There are no systematic estimates for how the total number of bee colonies has changed over the years but there is a wide consensus that numbers have declined since the arrival of varroa in the early 90s.
"There's been an upward trend in colony losses since 2001 which experts believe is due to the development of resistance to varroa treatments. However, so far this season colony losses are less than at the same time last year."
Weather
Now experts have drawn up the 'healthy bees plan' which, over a ten year period, makes them more aware of tackling pests and disease effectively and stemming the plunging population.
And in the meantime the government has just pledged 2.5m towards a 10m research programme in order to glean a better understanding of the threats facing bees.
But there's one hurdle they're up against which can't be researched or planned for – the unpredictable British weather. Bees like cold winters and warm, humid summers – neither of which we've seen over the last three years.
"By March of this year I considered giving it all up," said Peter Hoskins of Calverley, Leeds, who's been keeping bees for the last 15 years. "The weather had been so dreadful it just didn't seem worth it any more.
"But since the summer's come in it has done absolute wonders. In a cooler, wetter summer you get all the bees crammed in one hive together, inactive and being so close together and unhealthy they're more prone to diseases and infestations.
"But if they're out and about, active and collecting nectar then it brings out the best in them. All it really took was for a good year to turn things around, and it really does seem to have done the trick.
"In 2006 I collected half a ton of honey but by last year that was down to about 100lb. Now I don't expect close to the 2006 level this year but we'll still do very well.
"Last week I gathered some honey from a box that had only been put out for a few days and it was full – in 2008 it would have contained nothing by the end of that period.
"Quite whether the temperatures and humidity holds out till the end of the summer, who knows, but as a beekeeper you always have to be an eternal optimist."
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
