A NORTH Hampshire beekeeper has joined calls for the government to invest more money in researching why the nation’s bees are disappearing.

Geoff Galliver, from Odiham, collected signatures for a petition which was delivered to the Prime Minister last week.

The names became part of a 140,000-signature petition handed in at the Prime Minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street.

Although he was not among the hundreds of beekeepers from all over the UK who joined the rally in London, Mr Galliver feels strongly about the need for the research.

The 74-year-old, of Archery Fields, said: “A few years ago, the government, in its infinite wisdom, decided that beekeeping wasn’t a business, it was a hobby, so they withdrew funding for research.”

Beekeeping was taught and researched at agricultural colleges across the country, but after funding dried up, there is now only a single professor of apiculture  — the study of bees — left.

“The government seems oblivious to the fact that losing bees in this country will affect all the crops, such as fruit crops, because they won’t be pollinated,” Mr Galliver said. 

There was cross-party support for the beekeepers’ case — with MPs from all parties at the rally on November 5. Brian Herbert, chairman of the Hampshire Beekeepers’ Association, attended the rally on behalf of Hampshire beekeepers. He said he was unimpressed by the current stance of the government.

He said: “They say that they have no plans to cut current funding for bee disease research.

“But in typical and cynical spin-doctor style, they fail to mention the cuts they made two years ago when urgent and important lines of research had to be stopped and key scientists were made redundant. 

“Since then inflation has further eroded funding in real terms by about 8%. Bee problems have been increasing, yet funding has been decreasing.”

According to the Beekeepers’ Association, this year has been the worst for bees and beekeeping in living memory. About 75,000 colonies have been lost across the country. Experienced Hampshire beekeepers were reporting losing half their hives. 

Mr Galliver, who is the secretary of the Fleet Beekeepers’ Association, has been keeping bees for more than 30 years. He said the problems were grave.

“The last two years have been my worst two years in beekeeping in terms of amounts of honey.

“Two years ago we got 500lb of honey from our six hives. Then last year, 2007, I lost four out of my six hives for unexplained reasons,” he said.

This season, he prepared for the worst by building nursery hives — colonies of young bees.

It meant he managed to salvage about 250lb of honey from his crop — but it was still less than he had hoped.

It is not known why the bees are dying off.

Retired Mr Galliver said: “There are lots of theories. The one everyone brings up is mobile phones and electric pylons driving the bees away, but we don’t know.”

Global warming and sunnier autumn weather might also be a cause of the bees’ decline. “With the extended autumn, when the sun shines, the bees will fly, so they’re scoffing all their food but not bringing in any pollen.”

But he said the weather was just part of the problem — diseases were also widespread.

“They’re all just dead and we can’t explain it. There’s lots of research that needs to be done,” he said.

The fewer and weaker colonies across the country have meant poor pollination of stoned-fruits — cherries and plums being particularly hard hit.

Beekeepers like Mr Galliver and Mr Herbert are asking for a modest increase in research funding amounting to £8million over five years.

The association said it amounts to an annual increase of about 0.04% of the money recently found to bail out the banks. And the bees offer a return on investment, the association claimed. Apart from their value to the environment, bees contribute some £165m annually to British agriculture.

Mr Herbert and his wife Mary met Hampshire North-East MP James Arbuthnot and Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne to discuss the plight of the bees.

Mr Herbert said: “Both MPs were extremely supportive and very well-informed, and they promised to take the fight to the ministers  concerned.”

Mr Arbuthnot said the beekeepers’ concerns were “fantastically important”.

He added: “Bees are small things but the amount they contribute to human life, well, life of all sorts, is just phenomenal. And the amount of money to do this important research in finding out why the bees are disappearing is not, in the scheme of things, great.”

He said the government was being short-sighted by not funding the bee research now.

He added: “There won’t be this free pollination if the bees are hugely reduced in numbers or reduced in their vigour or if they’re not producing honey to sustain themselves through the winter. It is a very important area of research that needs funding.”