subject: A Spoon Full Of Honey Makes The Medicine Go Down (and The Bee Population Go Up) [print this page] The realisation that bees were dying out at an alarming rate came in 2006 and the term Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) was soon coined. CCD is a phenomenon in which hives of worker bees abruptly disappear with no single explanation and whilst this has been happening for centuries as a sort of natural selection, the term CCD was deemed necessary due to the drastic rise in the number of bee colonies disappearing in North America.
It has since been revealed that 36 per cent of bee colonies died in the USA in 2008 and 29 per cent in 2009, alarming statistics when you think that, in a normal year, an average of 15 to 20 per cent of bee colonies would die. This has been put down to a number of things, including the prevalence of the Varroa mite and the increasingly extreme changes in climate.
Bees have been getting a lot of press since, including an international film dedicated to their plight called Vanishing of the bees, which has been shown in cinemas across the world and is a vital source of information for all those who care about the future of the human race.
Since around 2008, the UK Government has made some money available for research into why bees are dying in the UK, including backing DEFRAs (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) honey bee health strategy. Large private sector organisations have also seen the importance of promoting ways to save the bees, particularly those whose businesses are dependent on the growth of quality food products to thrive.
Pledges to stop the use of neonicotinoid-based pesticides on own-brand fresh produce, actively encourage beekeepers to set up hives on commercial farms and introduce wildflower seed mixes alongside crops to encourage bees to pollinate neighbouring crops, have been implemented in some commercial UK food production companies.
You can help save our bees by looking for pesticide free produce when doing your weekly shop, buying honey and honey products such as beeswax and candles, signing the Plan Bee petition or with summer just around the corner, why not become an amateur beekeeper and make difference whilst sunning yourself?
