City bees produce more honey than country cousins
HONEYBEES in cities and suburban areas are producing more honey than those in rural areas, amid fears that the species is in grave decline.
Urban rooftop and suburban garden bees produced 27.5lb of honey per hive this year on average, according to a British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) survey. This compares with rural gardens, which produced an average of 22.5lb of honey per hive, around a fifth less.
Previous research has shown that honeybees in towns and cities enjoy a more diverse diet and find a richer diversity of pollen. This is because they visit a much wider range of flowers than bees foraging in the countryside.
While weather can cause fluctuations in honey yield, the BBKA said the species is in steady overall decline. Long-time beekeepers say a crop of up to 100lb, more than four times today’s average, was typical in the Fifties.
“In those days farmers underplanted crops with clover to nourish the land, nowadays there just isn’t time or space for this style of farming,” said John Hobrough, of the BBKA. “It is having a huge impact on the honey crop by reducing the forage available.”