Northamptonshire Beekeepers' Association (NBKA) Registered Charity No. 295593

A member organisation representing beekeepers in the County of Northamptonshire

Bee-Lines (A selection from our quarterly magazine)

November 2008

Chairman’s Letter.

The BBKA campaign to encourage the government to provide greater funding for research into the problems that have been affecting bees in recent years has been given wide publicity by the media. The public is now much more knowledgeable about honey bees and the vital role they play in pollination. There was certainly no difficulty getting signatures for the petition! In these difficult financial times, the plight of honey bees may not be top of the government’s priorities. But beekeeping can only benefit from the public’s increased knowledge & understanding. It is worth remembering that the only honey bees available for pollination are kept by beekeepers, since varroa has eliminated feral colonies.

Many years ago I read an article by Geoff Hamilton (of Gardener’s World fame) & was persuaded to stop using pesticides in my garden. The first year I tried this, my vegetable plot provided food for every living creature except me! However, eventually natural predators, which had not been killed by pesticides, removed the pests. Recently, the use of neonicotinoid pesticides has been widely blamed for the deaths of large numbers of honey bees throughout the world and & it has been suggested that their use, if not the cause, may be a significant contributory factory in Colony Collapse Disorder. Neonicotinoid pesticides are systemic chemicals that work their way through the plant and attack the nervous system of any insect it comes into contact with. The pesticide can also get into the pollen & nectar. Their use has been banned by Italy, Germany, Slovenia and France. Neonicotinoid pesticides are being widely used as a protective seed dressing for sugar beet in this country. The British Sugar Group has stated that no neonicotinoid pesticides have been detected in British sugar, therefore, home produced beet sugar poses no risk to bees. A sample of comb was analysed and was found to contain traces of 22 pesticides. Are low levels of pesticides responsible for some of the problems that are being reported? I have this year experienced colony losses, nucs. superseding and absconding, a newly mated queen becoming a drone layer, etc. None of these problems is new and we should not forget the effect of the weather over the last two seasons, the effect of varroa and associated viruses, mite resistance and, maybe, nosema ceranae, etc. It is now apparent that the Isle of Wight Disease was not caused by a single factor. Much was written then and now about bee deaths – opinion rather than proven facts. What is required is a scientific monitoring programme to investigate the reasons for recent bee deaths – which is where I started.

I hope, despite the poor summer, that your bees have prospered. Some beekeepers report good crops of honey, others appear to have been less fortunate. I hope you are in the former group!

I wish you and yours a happy Christmas and a sunnier New Year!

Brian P. Dennis.

Chairman.