Burt’s Bees funds a study to help save the honeybee

Burt’s Bees will partially fund research conducted by the University of Sussex into the health and well-being of the British honeybee. Lucie Goulet reports on the work being undertaken to prevent the insect’s extinction.

The University of Sussex five year study will look into the waggle dance of worker bees. Other areas of study will include breeding disease resistant hygienic bees, testing mites control and surveying levels of disease.

The call for research comes after the British Beekeepers’ Association’s report that claimed almost a fifth of the country’s honeybees had died last winter as a result of weather changes, viruses, the parasitic varroa mite and digital waves.

The potential extinction of honeybees would mean the end of a species which preceded humans on the earth by nearly 25 million years.

Though often seen as a potential threat because of their stinging ability, bees are however central to crop pollination, and their yearly contribution to the British agriculture is estimated to be between £165m and £200m.

Various protection programmes have been launched. It includes the creation of a National Bees Database on which beekeepers register their insects. It was followed by a series of articles in the national press about how to save the British honeybee.

Burt’s Bees