19th May 2008

Stroud meeting proposed

Cllr Ricky Knight, South West Green Party lead candidate for the 2009 European elections, has spoken out on the urgent threat to the UK’s bee colonies from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and the Varroa mite.

Photo: Ricky Knight (right) and Tim Potter

Ricky Knight said: "It is reckoned that honey bees contribute £165m annually to the agricultural economy, as well as their vital role in pollination for food crops and wild flowers. If the bee population decreases then both food crops and other flora will be hit hard if this crucial function disappears. The results could be disastrous, as delicate ecosystems would become unbalanced.'

Ricky Knight, who met this week with Tim Potter, a beekeeper near West Down in North Devon, said: "South West Greens are urging our members to get everyone they know to sign an online petition to help obtain the necessary funding into bee health (i)."

You can find the online petition at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BeeResearch/

Currently only £1.35m per annum is available to the National Bee Unit (part of Defra) to fund all its statutory activities as well as research. Last week an Early Day Motion was tabled requesting £8m of government funding into vital bee health research. It has already been signed by David Drew but not other yet by Gloucestershire MPs.

25 to 30% drop in colonies last year

Cllr Martin Whiteside, the Green party's parliamentary spokesperson for Stroud said: "The number of colonies across Gloucestershire has been declining steadily for more than a decade, but last year dropped from 25 to 30 per cent. There are 275 registered beekeepers in Gloucestershire. In 1994 there were about 5,000 colonies in the county. Last year the figure was between 1,500 to 2,000. Bees are an absolutely vital part of our environment: pollinating many of our field crops, orchards and garden flowers. Without them one of the fundamental cycles of life as we know it ceases to function. The death of bees is a sign that serious things are wrong with our environment."

The Varroa mite is an Asian parasite which over the past few years has spread and is now affecting European bees. It is just one of a series of viruses which can lead to CCD, which occurs when the bees leave the hive to die. The few bees left behind, when tested by scientists, have been found to carry virtually every known bee virus as well as several fungal infections. CCD has been reported in Germany, Italy and France, and its entry into the UK is most likely inevitable. Over half of Danish bees died this winter. In the United States commercial beekeepers saw the loss of 36 percent more hives than last year with a third of those attributed to CCD.

Ricky Knight said: "We take so much for granted with the food chain because we are so far removed from processes that have evolved over so many centuries. Bees are like a litmus test that can warn us that something is wrong. There is definitely something wrong with the bee population and, judging from what is happening elsewhere in the world, unless investment into research is done quickly and effectively, we are going to allow incalculable damage to be done to a magical and natural process that we rely upon absolutely for so much of our food production. Defra needs to take a leaf out of the EU’s book and start investing more effectively into research into the health of bee colonies and further, to consider subsidies for a cottage industry which provides such vital yet overlooked support for agriculture."

Former beekeeper, Jan Bailey, who lives near Cirencester lost two hives to Varroa. She said: "The dramatic drop in the number of bees is extremely worrying. There has been a drastic reduction in the number of both honey bees and wild bees on the apple blossom this year.  So it appears that what may be reducing honey bee numbers may also be affecting the wild populations - if this is so there will be massive implications for all crops that require pollination - and it is very worrying for the wider biodiversity of the environment. Urgent work is needed to identify what is going on - and if anything can be done to arrest this collapse of the bee populations."

Tim Potter, a West Devon beekeeper who produces Three Hares Honey, says: 'On top of bad weather such as last year’s wet summer, which seriously affected my honey yield, and compounded by fears of colony collapse, one of my sites was afflicted by European Foul Brood, which is the bee equivalent of BSE. This site is still isolated. On top of that, the expectations and restrictions placed upon beekeepers and their more or less volunteer inspectors are increasingly unrealistic and unsustainable. We are desperately looking for a change of political heart with regard the paltry allocations given to us at the moment.'

Stroud Greens plan conference

Stroud Green Party are planning a public meeting with expert speakers from the bee world. Philip Booth, a Stroud District Councillor, said: "Interest has been very strong locally. I have even had contact with a bee specialist in Australia who is offering to come at his own cost next month to trial his experiments that he believes can prevent Colony Collapse Disorder in hives. Certainly we must see Government action: imagine if one out of every three cows, or one out of every three chickens, were dying. That would raise a lot of alarm."

Notes