HONEY stocks have halved due to last year’s wet summer and harsh winter – and hopes are pinned on a good summer this year to replenish supplies.
Other UK wide threats to bees are pesticides and the colony destroying Varroa mite, mercifully under control in North Wales.
“We’re literally running out because of the wet summer last year and cold winter, “ said beekeeper and volunteer Kevin Slattery, at the National Beekeeping Centre in Tal y Cafn.
Rain on wings means it’s physically impossible for bees to fly to collect nectar and pollen but experts at the hives, part of the Bodnant Welsh Food Centre, hope that this year the supply of honey will increase between next month and October. Mr Slattery said the jury’s out about whether some pesticides called neonicotinoids are also responsible for low honey production, with the European Union commissioning more research to get a definitive answer.
More positively, the UK bee population is at risk from the Varroa mite but it is currently under control.
On pesticides, the National Farmers’ Union Cymru says their effects ar not fully known. NFU Cymru President, Ed Bailey said: “As an agricultural industry we fully understand the value of bees and other pollinating insects to crop and fruit production. A thriving pollinating insect population is vitally important to us and their value in ecosystem services including food production should never be underestimated.
“We crucially still don’t really know what impact they are having but there is no doubt that wet summers, droughts and harsh winters do have an effect not only on bees but on other insect pollinators.”
Yesterday the NFU at a Bee Summit in London claimed action to help bees must be based on all the evidence if it is to deliver real benefits to halt the decline of the country’s pollinators.