The honey bee Apis mellifera mellifera is the UK’s most important pollinating insect making an annual contribution to the economy of some £200m. It is the prime pollinator of a diverse range of commercial crops such as oil seed rape, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, field beans and peas.

As well as performing these services for gardeners and allotment holders, honey bees play a vital role in the pollination of wild flowers and without them many annuals would not set seed and subsequently be lost.

They also play a major role in pollinating trees and bushes helping to ensure a harvest of seeds, berries and nuts to sustain birds and small mammals through our winters.

In 1926 over 90% of the UK’s native bee population, was wiped out by the parasite Acarapis woodi, leaving only small isolated populations in Cumbria, West Wales, North Yorkshire and the West of Ireland. Massive quantities of bees were imported from around the world to fill the void, including Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and Europe. Most of these bees were either Apis mellifera carnica (the Carniolan bee) which is native to a huge area including the southern Alps east into Hungary as far as the River Danube and throughout the Balkans and into Greece or Apis mellifera lingustica (the Italian bee) which only occurs naturally in the Italian peninsula and nearby islands.

Whilst both of these sub-species have very positive qualities, neither is well suited to the long wet and often cold winters of Northern England. Both sub-species readily interbreed with our native sub-species resulting in hybrids that are frequently of aggressive temperament and not always well suited to our local environment.

In 1992 honey bees suffered a further major blow when Varroa destructor, the parasitic mite of the Asian bee Apis cerana, was found on the South Coast and has since spread to almost the whole of the UK. Attempts by Defra to eradicate this parasite have failed and it is now endemic. However, new systems of bee husbandry have been devised which, if carefully maintained, enable the impact of the parasite to be kept to manageable levels.

2007 and 2008 were disastrous seasons for honey bees. Many trees and plants failed to produce much pollen or nectar, which is the vital ingredient in honey, and prolonged rain prevented the bees from getting out to collect what was available. Colony losses across the UK were estimated to be between 40% and 60%. Such high losses resulted in increased importations of bees from abroad and higher numbers of outbreaks of serious diseases such as European and American foulbrood. There is, however, no evidence to link the losses within the UK to the even greater losses in the USA through Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

Conversely, the amount of media attention to the plight of honey bees aroused unprecedented interest in beekeeping and the number of people wishing to keep bees. This has stretched, and in some instances exceeded, the capacity of local beekeeping clubs to provide good quality practical and theoretical training and provide new beekeepers with stocks of good tempered, healthy bees, well suited to their local environment.

Lancaster Beekeepers has some 140 members. It was formed in 1942 as a branch of the Lancashire and North West Beekeepers’ Association but in 2009 became an independent charitable company directly affiliated as an Area Association of the British Beekeepers Association.
Please visit www.lancaster-beekeepers.org.uk for further information.