Parasite meets its match in a dedicated beekeeper (From Swindon Advertiser)

Parasite meets its match in a dedicated beekeeper

8:10am Thursday 19th August 2010 in

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HE may have found the solution to a sticky problem that has devastated the country’s bee population for years, but beekeeper Ron Hoskins is not stopping there.

Despite approaching his 80th birthday, Ron is hoping to raise £4,000 so his solution to the deadly parasitic mite varroa can be rolled out across Wiltshire in the hope that honeybees can survive in the wild.

He is hoping members of the public will donate generously to the cause, and is planning on a number of fundraising events to help boost funds.

“What we’ve achieved over the past six or eight years is to develop a honeybee that is capable of dealing with the small mite that is killing billions of bees,” said Ron, who has been interested in beekeeping since he was 12.

“Our bees are able to groom mites off themselves.The work has been going on since 1999 and we have achieved good results since 2004 and spectacular results since 2008.”

Ron plans to use the money raised to buy a number of special hives that only house 2,000 bees and a small microscope with a strong magnifying lens to help other beekeepers around the country carry on with the study he has been doing.We want to get this on a bigger circuit, firstly Swindon, then north Wiltshire and then the rest of Wiltshire,” he said.

The varroa mite was first found in the UK in 1992 and within four years had spread across the country.

“It devastated the honeybee population and lots of beekeepers gave up,” said Ron, who is the president of the Swindon And District Beekeepers’ Association.

In the late 1990s he travelled to America to learn how to artificially inseminate bees and began breeding a strain of honeybee that was able to survive without chemical interference by man.

Last year he was even invited to Australia to lecture on the work he has carried out.

“I’m never going to stop. I’m going to live until I’m 150 because there is so much more I still want to do. I still enjoy it as much as ever,” he said.

“It is a lot of hard work but I am a very dedicated beekeeper and sometimes I am working until 2 o’clock in the morning.”

To support the cause email Ron at ron@honeybee1.org.uk or call 07737400515.