The world is in mortal danger… time for Plan Bee

Honeybees are dying out worldwide, causing widespread concern amongst not only beekeepers but also politicians and the public. It is becoming a serious and urgent worldwide issue, and where is some of the most important research being conducted? Well, here at Sussex.

When you consider the honeybee, which I’m sure you often do, you may imagine the irritating pest, the painful sting, maybe on a good day a nice pot of honey. But there’s really a whole lot more to our busy little friends.

In fact, the honey bee is central to commercial agriculture, responsible for no less than one out of every three mouthfuls of food we put in our mouths. And now newspapers worldwide have been reporting that bees are on a serious decline. 30% of hives were lost between 2007 and 2008, according to the British Bee Keepers Association (BBKA)- up from 6% in 2003. It’s been warned there will be no more British honey by Christmas. It has been called an ‘agricultural catastrophe.’ And no one knows why it is happening.

The solution to this alarming mystery may begin to be unravelled right here at Sussex. Since July, a secluded woodland area of the University has been home to the laboratory of Professor Francis Ratnieks, the UK’s only Professor of Apiculture (to you or me that’s THE man for bees in Britain) and a research team dedicated to saving the honeybee. They form the new Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects (LASI). By his own admission Ratnieks is ‘quite an unusual person’; rather unique in his interests. He says, ‘most biologists don’t want to bother with normal things like bees and beekeepers. But for me the bee is not just an animal of interest to beekeepers, but vitally important in other ways too.’f

The newly formed Sussex Plan for Honey Bee Health & Wellbeing focuses on the deadly Varroa mite as the main cause of the bee deaths. Ratnieks is at the moment occupied with selectively breeding strains of “hygienic” bees, which swiftly remove infected larvae and so reduce the spread of disease within the hive. Other possibilities for what has become known as Colony Collapse Disorder include the possibility that long distance travel and the constant relocation of commercial bee colonies has led to unnatural stress. Thousands of overworked bees may simply be running away.

“The loss of bee colonies threatens an industry worth $15 billion to the US economy and in Britain the economic value of crops that survive on bee pollination is estimated at approximately £191 million per year”

The LASI has three more projects in the pipeline. With increased funding they will be able to expand the research into a comprehensive study of what has become not only a scientific mystery, but a disaster for the international economy (as though we need another of those). The loss of bee colonies threatens an industry worth $15 billion to the US economy, where the problem is already more serious, causing new headlines every week. In Britain the economic value of crops that survive on bee pollination is estimated at approximately £191 million per year. Apart from all that, without bees there would be no coffee, no orange juice, no wildflowers and no mead- no ale!

Despite scores of such figures, the government has so far refused to expand the £200,000 given over annually to bee research to the £1.6 million demanded by the BBKA. Currently the funds go mainly towards an as yet unclear ‘bee health strategy’, rather than to the already developed and specialised Sussex laboratory. The Sussex Plan is funded so far by the university’s generous benefactor, Michael Chowen, and a recent £100,000 donation from Rowse Honey Ltd. For Ratnieks it is important to keep moving on positively with the funding they have: ‘Sometimes you get sick of all the doom and gloom and all the talking and waffling. You just have to cut through that by actually doing something.’

The BBKA marched on Downing Street last winter demanding increased funds and the next march is planned for Spring. These are not the most militant of events. As Ratnieks’ colleague Norman Carreck observes, the average age and speed, of a beekeeper is such that the winter protest of hundreds spread out somewhat on its way from Whitehall, meaning at least that numbers appeared tripled. But they are angry and their argument is a real and compelling one. Tim Lovett, president of BBKA, argues that ‘the increased funding we are asking for is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of pounds the government has found for bank bail-outs. Bees are probably one of the most economically useful creatures on earth. We must identify what is killing them, and that means research.’

For Ratnieks the importance of the bee is not only its commercial use. ‘The honeybee is a gateway to biology – a huge range of important questions in biology, from agriculture to genetics, can be studied in this one species.’ Undergraduates as well as the research team work together at Sussex looking into a complexity of areas; including how the female bee can choose what sex her offspring will be and the complex ‘waggle dance’ by which bees can communicate to each other how far they have travelled, as well as the pressing issue of bee health.

So far Ratnieks and Carreck seem confident they will be able to identify what is killing the bee and over the next few years to expand the hygienic breeding programme to hives around the country. Both are keen to allay my fears that the world is on the brink of collapse. I read somewhere that Einstein said four years after bees become extinct so humanity will follow. Although Carreck reassures me this is a false quote, the bee is certainly more central to our world than I ever imagined.

So don’t start hoarding cans in your cupboards just yet, but next time you see a busy bee in your back garden, tip your proverbial hat. And if you walk around the back garden of Sussex and see the hoards of hives surrounding Ratnieks and his team, tip it again. The image of the overworked runaway bee, alienated from its natural instincts by the unyielding agriculture industry is surely one that should reinstate to us the importance of our natural allies. In a world where we feel so secure in mechanical methods of production it is both alarming and fascinating to know that, in fact, we would be nowhere without the humble bee.