18/04/13 Tony Maggs, 61, inspects some of his hives at an apiary near Derby. The poor weather last year and endless winter we've just has had a dr
18/04/13 Tony Maggs, 61, inspects some of his hives at an apiary near Derby. The poor weather last year and endless winter we've just has had a dramatic impact on Britain's honey bees. One professional bee-keeper, Tony Maggs, from Derby has lost almost half of his colonies. "Twenty-four of my fifty hives are now empty. It's not just the long winter we've had, the problems started last spring and continued into the summer. The cold and wet we had meant the plants' pollen yields were low and the bees weren't able to venture out to collect what little pollen was around. "This in turn meant mating with queens was often difficult to achieve. "It meant that the colonies weren't able to build up to full strength for the winter. They hadn't been able to collect enough food to see them through this dreadful winter. "DEFRA have recommended that we mix-up and feed our bees a pollen substitute made from soya, brewers yeast, local honey and dried skimmed milk. It's the first time I've ever had to do that in 25 years of bee keeping," said Tony who sells honey and bee keeping equipment from The Honey Pot at Markeaton Park, Derby. "There are variations across the country but it's basically the same picture everywhere. "The hives that did survive are all weeks behind where they should be at t his time of year. "I have lots of empty 'bait' hives now which, if the weather is better this spring I'll begin repopulating with new queens from my colonies in June and July." Gill Maclean, from The British Bee Keepers Association said: " We are anticipating that losses of bees over the winter will be higher than usual due to the Whole weather pattern over the past year. We are already hearing of losses this Winter Survey October to March 2013 will be published in June and we will have an accurate idea of how many losses there have been then." ends All Rights Reserved - F Stop Press. Tel: +44 (0)1335 300098.
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Keywords: apiarist, apiary, bee, bees, fsp, fstoppress, hive, hives, honey, keeper, press, stop
