Honey Bees

The plight of the honey bee in Britain is dire. The lack of clover fields and hawthorn hedges, the virulence of the varroa mite in hives and the mysterious 'Colony Collapse Disorder' (CCD) where some bees mysteriously leave the hive never to return and those that remain are overcome by fungal and viral infections are all serious contributors to the reduction of honey bee numbers. But why is this so important?

Einstein allegedly said: 'If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have 4 years of life left. No bees, no pollination, no plants, no animals, no man.'

Scientists have since said that this is rather an extreme view, nevertheless it highlights just how important honey bees are. An average hive houses around 50,000 bees that pollinate some 500,000 plants per day. For this to be done manually would be far from cost effective and almost impossible to achieve. In 2007 the government worked out the value of bees to the UK economy to be £200 million, whilst their retail value was estimated to be closer to £1 billion.

We can each do our bit however to encourage the bee population:

• Grow bee friendly plants such as alliums (onion family) flowering herbs, beans, sunflowers, foxgloves, hollyocks


• Look into bee keeping yourself or contact your local bee keepers assocaition and allow a bee keeper to keep a hive on your land.


• Buy local honey

In the next blog discover the history myth and legend of bees, the health properties of bee products and what Mrs Darley has to say about them in the latest 'Mrs Darley' book out soon.