There has been much talk recently about the worldwide dramatic decline of the honey bee, and concern over the causes of their susceptibility to the varroa mite.

However, watching a programme a few weeks ago on television about a beekeeping factory in America, there seemed to be a multitude of reasons for this decline.

These bees were kept in packing cases, designed more for transportion, rather than for the comfort of the bees.

Secondly, upon receipt of a phone call from a fruit farmer, or other customer, these boxes were piled onto a lorry and driven many miles until they reached their destination.

At this point they were released into enormous orchards, where the trees had been sprayed with insecticide, and left to get on with the job.

This left the bees with no choice as to what they fertilised.

When their job was done and they returned to their boxes, they were driven back to their home base, and so it continued throughout the pollination season.

When winter arrived, with much of their honey store removed, they were given a supply of what looked like a white powder, presumably refined sugar, to keep them going throughout the cold months.

Natural honey has health-giving benefits and presumably this would help the bees fight infection and disease, but if fed on sugar, surely that would lower their resistance?

This suggests that in that particular farm, the bees suffered from at least one of the following – overcrowding, stress, lack of a varied source of nectar, and insufficient nutrients to build up their resistance.

It is interesting that in this country the Women’s Institute are taking this problem seriously and many members are taking up bee keeping, and on an estate in Cornwall, manuka bushes have been planted for the bees’ enjoyment, and where the bees are possibly the most pampered in the world, moving into two new £5,000 hives, equipped with the latest in bee mod-cons.

As well they might, bearing in mind the cost of manuka honey.

Wyn Foster
Sussex Road
Colchester