How the bees died (we think)

Although we’ve yet to send off the sample of bees for analysis, we’re pretty certain what killed them having cleaned out the hive yesterday afternoon. We found far fewer bees inside the hive than should have been there but Colony Collapse Disorder is still ruled out because that involves all the bees abandoning the hive. That didn’t happen. The majority of bees had fallen dead to the very bottom while a crowd had died at the entrance trying to get back inside in a hurry, meaning that the weather conditions changed quickly at some point when some of the bees were out on cleansing flights.

What we’re not sure of is why the bees were caught by surprise, as they apparently were. Bees are normally attuned to the weather and pick up on all sorts of signs such as temperature variations that we humans may not. They know what they’re doing. Usually. Even in the winter months bees are awake and keep themselves warm by huddling together in what is effectively a great big ball. Their activity keeps the internal temperature very high but you need a critical mass of bees for this to work. When a colony is big and strong it can survive temperatures well below even the record-breaking drops we encountered in the UK in January.

As well as finding fewer bee bodies than expected we found evidence of damp and mould. This can only happen when the bees aren’t for some reason keeping the temperature high enough. Instead of liquid evaporating away it condenses on the frames. The hive itself has no leaks through which rain or snow could drip inside. There was no evidence of any vomiting or diarrhoea—yes, bees can do both when sick—meaning the cause was unlikely to be a number of diseases and organisms that leave behind these tell-tale signs.

The varroa mites, while we found quite a few dead, were not in sufficient quantity to have killed the colony. The bees had not drawn down any of the food we provided but neither had they had consumed all of their own stores of honey by the time they died en masse. We think the colony was too small and stressed to cope with the big freeze this winter, and the reason for that is down to a succession of lousy summers with heavy rainfall.

Apart from the sample of bees kept for analysis, we last night burned the frames, the honey, the countless little bodies. It made for an upsetting sight. My beloved could not bear to watch as his hard work and care over two years went up in flames. I took the photo you see accompanying this piece and then walked away. The smell of honey, something I love under happier circumstances, made me want to throw up. I can’t even face putting honey on my toast for a while yet. We have just two jars left from our poor colony.

The hive now stands empty until we buy a blow-torch to singe the interior. This will ensure the structure is then completely free from the risk of disease, and can be used again. At the earliest opportunity thereafter we will repopulate the hive, and start over. We’ll be praying for a long hot summer, something all British beekeepers will be hoping for. A fifth of all bees in the UK died last winter. Chances are, that decline will have accelerated this winter because it comes after another, if not appalling, certainly worse than mediocre summer.

If we can’t arrest and reverse the decline, it won’t just be bees that are in trouble. It will be all of us as well. Our main party politicians, meanwhile, are united in their determined efforts to do very little if anything to address this crisis, just as they intend to do nothing at all to prepare for other ecological crises to come.

What good are money and banks when the world we rely on is changing so dramatically, and so terribly? Instead of real action we see our elected leaders peddling GM food as the way forward for feeding the unsustainably ever-growing global human population. They do this because the likes of bioengineering corporation Monsanto buy their allegiance in backroom deals. Even if we bought into that baloney, the majority of Frankenstein crops need bees as much as traditional and natural plants. The UK government puts more money into hiring PR and marketing agencies, and finding scientists who can be compromised, to sell the idea of GM to us than it gives to bee research.

The madness worsens day by day. Money can, for a while yet, save us but only if it is spent wisely. There is little if any evidence of this happening. We need more beekeepers, yes. We do. And they need financial support from central government that is currently entirely absent. Where is the vision? Where is the honesty?

As Nero plays his fiddle the dead bees burn. We’re getting to the point where we need to ram his violin down his greedy throat and get leaders who play an altogether different tune.

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