Honey Bee Health

I congratulate the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) on bringing this important subject to the Chamber. I will try to be brief so that other hon. Members can participate. The demise of the honey bee and its catastrophic impact have been well covered this morning, particularly in the contribution of the hon. Member for Norwich, North (Dr. Gibson). I will set out a case study, which is focused on my constituency. In the southern part of Essex, the number of beekeepers is very low. Some 35 years ago, there were more beehives than dogs in walking distance of Castle Point council, but now it is quite different. The only bees belong to Doug Beard, who keeps two dozen hives, but not many in Castle Point because we have built on our green belt and bees need trees and so on for foraging. A superb local lady, Margaret Thomas, runs a beginners class in Essex with an amazing 28 pupils and struggles to find bees for them. Margaret is a rarity; she is probably one of the UK's best and most professional teachers of beekeeping. After world war two, every county had its own agricultural college—in Essex, it was Writtle college. Embedded within each college was a county beekeeping lecturer. In Essex, it was Ted Hooper, who eventually got a well deserved MBE. In the 1980s, all the CBLs were made redundant because they were deemed to be unprofitable. Looking back, we could question the foresight of that. Many of today's problems might have been exacerbated by the fact that we no longer have professional, properly qualified teachers. Beekeeping is now taught mostly by volunteers. They are wonderful, superb and enthusiastic volunteers, but they might not always impart the professional knowledge that is needed to keep hives healthy. The Government need to fund qualified beekeeping teachers. The national diploma in beekeeping is a degree-level qualification that is recognised worldwide. I hope that the Minister will address the problem. I know that she is interested in animal welfare—I thought it was just greyhounds, but I am delighted that she is also interested in bees. The NBU employs seasonal, regional bee inspectors, who should inspect all hives for disease once every three years, but we have not seen one for at least 10 years in Castle Point. The inspectors now spend more time searching for beekeepers than inspecting hives. I am now going to upset a few hon. Members by saying that compulsory registration might not be such a bad idea if it enables those inspectors to do their job more effectively. I realise that others disagree with that view. It seems that every problem must have a ready solution and that it must not be the fault of the individual beekeepers or even Government policy, so varroa is very convenient: if we all hang our hats on it, we need not do anything. Of course it is a major problem, but it is not the only problem, and it does not mean that we can ignore everything else. That is particularly true in Britain, as opposed to the USA on one extreme and Australia on the other. In Britain, we have two products—Apistan and Bayvarol—to control the mites. When honey bees began to become immune to those treatments, Apiguard was produced and improved bee husbandry methods were introduced. In the past two years, some keepers have applied oxalic acid. In 2007, Doug Beard had 16 colonies and lost none; last year, he had 24 colonies and lost none. Losses are not inevitable to those who practise good husbandry and have understanding. Typically, beekeepers lose about 10 per cent. of their hives during the winter months and that percentage can be much higher, as everyone knows, but the explanation is not rocket science. As was mentioned, pesticides can be a problem. Combined, cold and wet conditions kill bees, so good keepers ensure that water cannot get into their hives. They ensure—using decent mouth guards, of course—that there is good air circulation and that there is no condensation in the hives. Lack of teaching must be a major factor in the demise of honey bees in this country. Many of today's problems are exacerbated by poor bee husbandry, as the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare explained. We need research so that we understand better the connection between varroa and viruses, particularly deformed wing virus and acute paralysis virus. Government funding is very welcome, but what about some finance from the beekeeping industry? The Minister will have heard that. A search of the Charity Commission's website reveals many beekeeping associations with cash in the bank. The International Bee Research Association has £300,000; Surrey Beekeepers Association has £100,000; the associations in Cheshire, Essex and Yorkshire have money; the BBKA has £200,000; and the association in Kent has £100,000—as the right hon. Member for Hitchin and Harpenden (Mr. Lilley) once said, I have a little list. Actually, my list is quite long, and those are only the registered charities: the C. B. Dennis British Beekeepers Research Trust has the best part of £1 million in the bank. Perhaps the Minister will find the suggestion of funding from the industry the most helpful one that I make today, even if the beekeeping community does not. Perhaps Government money should be match funded from the beekeeping side. The latter could at least make some effort. Ministers are used to MPs asking for them to provide money—it happens all the time—so I shall end my speech on that note and leave the Minister with a smile on her face.