Phil Gurr wrote:


As a beekeeper, I am very aware of the dramatic loss of bees in the
UK. It is certainly true that bees in towns or cities are doing much
better. This is probably due to the variety and abundance of nectar
plants in our gardens and the very low use of insecticides in towns
and cities. Bees were hit very hard 20 or so years ago with the
appearance of the varoa mite, which caused many beekeepers to give
up. More recently there have been outbreaks of CCD (colony colapse
disorder), the cause of which is still unknown. Various theories have
been put forward from mobile phone masts to a new virus originating
in Israel - bees are regularly shipped worldwide nowadays so a virus
can be disseminated rapidly. Most of the beekeepers in my area
(northern Scotland) lost all their bees 2 years ago, and have found
it almost impossible to obtain new stock. The only large supplier of
bees are Thornes of Wormit (Tayside) and at the last enquiry the
waiting time was 2 years. The cost of a starter colony of bees is in
the region of £70 and when you add to this the cost of the hive
components, you have an outlay in the region of £200. If anyone is
interested in keeping bees, they should try and spend a couple of
years helping an established beekeeper to get the hang of things,
before investing in their own bees.

Many thanks for that, Phil. Most informative and interesting!

I was without bees for two years due to CCD, but fortunately (and
surprisingly) managed to cature a wild swarm this year and now have
bees again. They are more 'pets' for me as here in the far north we
generally only have a surplus of honey every 3 or 4 years.

May I ask, the far north of where?

I think I might investigate the option that Sacha mentioned. Do you have
any information on that, please?