Attempt to save bees from disease

Disease is killing off British honey bees

A South Oxfordshire honey producer is funding a research project to look into ways of reversing the decline of the British honey bee.

Rowse Honey, based in Wallingford, is concerned supplies of English honey could run out by Christmas.

It is giving £100,000 to the project at Sussex University.

Managing director David Bond said disease in bees is a problem. "There is a crisis of bee health and it's very important we do something about it."

Experts are worried after an estimated two billion bees died last winter through disease.

The existing methods to control bees with chemicals are no longer working effectively Professor Francis Ratnieks Sussex University

Britain's only professor of beekeeping, Francis Ratnieks, recently moved to Sussex University and now finds his new apiary and laboratory at the forefront of the battle to save the honey bee.

The £100,000 grant will be used to try to breed hygienic bees which are more resistant to diseases.

It has also allowed the professor to hire one of the countries leading bee researchers, Norman Carrick, to work on the project.

Prof Ratnieks said: "It is very important because we have several diseases which are causing a problem now and so the existing methods to control them with chemicals are no longer working effectively."

The government says it is working to produce a nationwide bee health strategy and has not reduced its spending on bee research in recent years.

But beekeepers say more needs to be done.

On Wednesday, a group of beekeepers from across the country will be marching on Whitehall to call for more money for research.