Disease, mites and weather wiping out UK bees

"Despite the best efforts of our members, bees are suffering as the varroa mites who weaken colonies and spread viruses are becoming resistant to treatments. This is all on top of the bad weather, especially the wet summers, over which we have no control. There is currently no 'magic bullet' for controlling varroa. We must have more research."

clipped from www.independent.co.uk Two billion bees – one in three of Britain's honey bee colonies – have been lost over the past 12 months, in the worst losses ever seen in the UK. Yet the causes are unclear, and the apiarists fear there is nothing to prevent a similar devastation this winter – but the Government, they say, is letting it happen. The association claims that pollination by bees would be worth £825m to the agricultural economy over the same period, and says they are asking for less than 1 per cent of that. But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says that it cannot afford it. In the UK there are about 44,000 beekeepers who manage about 274,000 hives, which produce 6,000 tonnes of honey a year. The varroa mite reached the UK in 1992 and now infests 95 per cent of hives. Untreated colonies die in three to four years.