The Scarborough and district beekeepers association has joined a
national effort to make the government and the public more aware of
declining honeybee numbers (
Beekeepers' cash appeal to help Yorkshire's declining honey bee population - Scarborough Evening News
).
Experts have been looking into the deformed wing virus, which causes
abnormalities such as damaged appendages and stubby, useless wings.
This can lead to bees being expelled from hives and dying within 48
hours. It had been assumed that the virus replicated inside the
parasitic varroa mite, but new research showed no such evidence,
suggesting the mite could not pass on the infection the conventional
way when it feeds on bees.
Jennifer Patterson, the secretary of the Scarborough group, told the
Scarborough Evening News: "We want the government to put more money
into sorting this out. Farmers rely on bees to pollinate the crops -
a lack of bees has a lot of knock-on effects that people might not
realise."
Earlier this month, experts at the National Bee Unit, near York,
blamed a combination of harsh weather, disease and parasitic
predators for Yorkshire's 900 beekeepers losing 14% of their honeybee
colonies so far this year.