April 2023 Update: The End Of An Era For The Walworth Garden Apiary

Walworth Garden has kept bees for many years. During that time there was relatively little knowledge of the environmental impact that these highly organised social insects have on populations of wild bees.

Over the years, the number of colonies in the area has grown significantly with commercial beekeepers now also present in the area. Despite what many people think, honey bees are not declining and there are probably too many honey bees in some parts of London.

There is no regulation for those who want to keep bees and a recent spike of the highly contagious disease, European Foulbrood in our area forced us to destroy two of our colonies. We will never know where the disease came from nor if it is still in the area, making our colonies constantly vulnerable to new infections. High densities of honey bee colonies increase the risk of infection. Destroying a colony (by burning them, as required by DEFRA), is nothing short of traumatic for all concerned.

Now that the Garden has a strong organic and wildlife-friendly focus, we have begun to consider what impact such an increase in honey bee populations may be having on wild bees, especially when there is little forage to go round in such a built up area. The thinking has always been that declines in wild bee populations are due in large part to a decline in habitats caused by human interference. While this may well be true, a study published in February 2023 concludes that competition for forage caused by large and increasing populations of honey bees is also contributing to the decline of wild bees.

For these reasons, Walworth Garden has decided it is no longer appropriate to house honey bees, preferring instead to focus on the promotion of wild bees. We will therefore be closing the apiary and finding a new home for the bees after the summer.

Thank you for your understanding.

If you have any questions or concerns about this update, please call our CEO Oli Haden on 0207 582 2652, or email us at: info@walworthgarden.org.uk

Read the article on ‘Decline in wild bee species richness associated with honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) abundance in an urban ecosystem’ from Peerj, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, here.