Mystery of the Bee-rmuda Triangle

10:33am Friday 21st March 2008

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The first bumblebee of the year seen in our back yard was trying to make its way to a forsythia bush that had just come into blossom. Sadly, it didn't get there because it was hit by a sudden gust of wind, quickly followed by a pounding shower of hailstones which proceeded to strip the bush of many of its so-welcome flowers.

We have not seen him (or her) since and that is very bad news for my wife's flowers, my struggling broad beans and for plants everywhere because, unknown and unnoticed by most people, a potential crisis is looming among British bees. One that be counted in hard cash - millions of it.

The bumble bee is an ace propagator, ensuring the future fertility of uncountable thousands of plants. As the first of the pollen carriers to emerge in the spring, it is particularly welcome to early-flowering plants like forsythia, daffs, crocus and early blossoms from almond trees and then cherries.

But the bumble bee is an insular insect, living a lonely life in underg-round nooks and crannies until its small family arrives. The majority of the country's plants and crops are propagated by its much more numerous cousin, the honey bee.

Unfortunately, the English honey bee is under threat from not one but two deadly diseases invading from abroad; one well-known but the other totally mysterious. And the Government has refused to put up any extra funding for research into this potential threat to future food supplies, even though food costs are soaring all around the globe.

A survey by environment department Defra suggested bees contribute some £165 million a year to the rural economy by pollinating fruit trees, field beans and other crops, as well as producing 5,000 tonnes of honey worth another £12 million. The pleasure they give to millions of gardeners is inestimable.

For ten years, however, British beekeepers have been taking huge losses from a European parasite called varroa, which carries disease that has wiped out tens of thousands of hives, some of them in North Yorkshire - heather honey from the North York Moors and the Yorkshire Dales is one of the most sought-after varieties in the UK.

Now a new threat looms, this time from America, and no-one knows what causes it. Like something out of science fiction, it is called Colony Collapse Disease because entire colonies simply abandon their hives - and disappear into thin air.

It has already caused widespread disruption in the USA, where thousands of bee hives are transported from state to state to pollinate various crops as they come into season, and all sorts of weird and wonderful causes have been suggested.

One is that electro-magnetic waves from mobile phones are interfering with the bees' navigation systems, causing them to fly off to their doom, rather like those US warplanes that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. This mystery has now reached Britain and, here in Yorkshire, a member of the Leeds Beekeepers' Association lost 14 out of 15 colonies. "To lose such a large proportion of hives is highly unusual," says association chairman Brian Latham.

The problem was debated in the House of Lords two weeks ago, when Farm Minister Lord Rooker admitted: "If nothing is done about it, the honey bee population could be wiped out in ten years." But he told the House gloomily that there was no extra Government cash available for research!

If that were not enough, listen to Yorkshire beekeeper Brian Latham: "Some crops can be pollinated by wind-blown pollen, but this is very hit-and-miss. Bees get right inside a flower so the contact is very strong. There is an old saying that, if all the bees in the world died, the human race would follow suit in five years."