Climate Change and Honeybees

Mild, wet winters; hot dry summers – a Mediterranean climate, in other words. Earlier seasons and altered flowering patterns are both beneficial and challenging for honeybees. Different patterns of swarming have emerged. Extraordinarily large and intense honey flows are followed in the late summer by an enhanced threat from predators (wasps, varroa, wax moth), and substantially higher winter losses. Everything is more extreme than before. These changes have tested our established management practices, to breaking point sometimes. All aspects need to be reconsidered and adapted.

But it isn’t all bad! We are fortunate to keep bees on a regenerative farm where there are plenty of trees, established hedgerows, and plants such as sainfoin and chicory whose deep roots make them drought-tolerant. What does an ideal, climate resilient system look like for bees? Does it really make a difference for our beekeepers? How are bees adapting, and what are some best and worst case scenarios for the future of beekeeping in Britain?

About the speaker

Tony Yarrow began keeping bees in 1975, at a place called Llanarth in West Wales. Over time he has developed a management system based on close observation of the bees’ behaviour, and in which intervention is kept to an absolute minimum. Tony is in his sixth year of keeping bees at FarmED, where he supplies honey to the kitchen and café as well as leading bee-related one-day courses and lunchtime talks.