With Wales’ honey bee population in sharp decline, the fate of these essential pollinators now rests in the hands of small and backyard beekeepers.

A growing interest in organic food and green issues is credited with raising the public awareness of bees as essential pollinators, according to a story by Izzy Kaminski, Countryside News correspondent to the Western Mail, Wales.

With a sharp decline in natural pollinators over the past few years — about a quarter of the UK’s wild bee species are listed as endangered — honey bees are vital to the pollination of food crops, and small beekeepers are beginning to be recognized as playing a vital role in sustaining their populations.

Even on an individual scale, hobby beekeeping makes a huge difference. Each beekeeper owns five or six hives on average, with every hive boasting about 40,000 worker bees at the height of the season, so a new keeper could potentially add 200,000 honey bees to the population.

In Wales, where non-commercial beekeepers are not required to register their hives, estimates range from 1,800 to 2,200 beekeepers. As in many other countries, the average age of beekeepers is something over 60 years old, and the number of active beekeepers has been in decline for some time.

The good news, according to the report, is that Welsh beekeepers’ associations are starting to report more people who are getting started in beekeeping, in all age groups from 20 to 50 years. And the number is expected to rise over the next few years with “30-somethings” moving out to the Welsh countryside, organic food continues to gain in demand, and environmental issues claim a place in global news headlines.

See:
What’s the buzz?
icWales.co.uk: Western Mail
25 September 2007