New appointment promises to bee a success

The beekeeping community is buzzing as the University of Sussex appoints the UK’s only Professor of Apiculture.

The humble bee can show us a thing or two about society

Professor Francis Ratnieks will head the newly-created Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects at the University and thinks that the study of honeybees and social insects offers insights into aspects of social living that could benefit man.

He said: “The honeybee is the gateway to biology – a huge range of important questions in biology, from agriculture to genetics, can be studied in this one species.”

Honeybees are the major pollinators of agricultural and wild plants, pollinating around £165m worth of crops in the UK annually. They also produce honey and wax, but their importance to scientists doesn’t end there. Ratnieks even thinks human society could learn a thing or two.

“Humans are relative newcomers to social living compared to bees. We could learn much from social insects that have lived in complex groups for tens of millions of years. Insect societies face many of the problems faced by human society, including maintaining public health, organising efficient information and transport systems and by maintaining harmony in the group.”

The £250,000 facility comprises a research lab with offices. There are special facilities for studying honeybees including space to keep ten observation bee hives, a workshop for assembling and storing bee hives, an apiary for bee hives in the land beside the lab, plus additional apiaries on the university campus.

The launch should also be welcome news for UK bee keepers concerned about the lack of Government investment in bee research. Beekeepers see research as vital to the continued success of commercial beekeeping, which is important to the economy and the environment but threatened by factors such as disease, pests and environmental degradation.