National Honey Week is fast approaching. Jane Hall talks to a local producer whose business is the sweet sticky stuff about why it’s not just sun-starved Brits who will be looking forward to a long, hot summer

FLASH floods, days of incessant rain, grey skies, unseasonably cool temperatures ... 2008 will be remembered for presenting us with the worst spring and summer weather in living memory.

As the world headed into global recession, it seemed the forecast was bleak all round, reflecting the mood of the nation.

It understandably left a sour taste as the heating stayed on way past it’s normal switch-off date and strappy summer sandals and sun-dresses were instead replaced by Wellington boots and weatherproof jackets.

But for some the freak climatic conditions were an even more bitter pill to swallow. For Britain’s beekeepers’ 2008 was an unmitigated disaster. A miserable summer that confined bees to their hives following a winter bedevilled by deadly viruses and a cool, damp spring, decimated honey production.

For Willie Robson of Chain Bridge Honey Farm near Berwick, 2008 was the worst year since the mid-1980s. Honey production fell to half its usual level of 60 tonnes.

Now the 64-year-old who keeps 1,800 hives in north Northumberland and the Borders is praying 2009 will be a sweeter year for his 10,000 bees.

With sales booming as consumers look not only to reap honey’s known health benefits but seek to increasingly source their food from closer to home, Willie needs his small but industrious workforce to replenish his dwindling stocks.

While he still has 12 tonnes in storage, with more than 500 outlets across the North East and Cumbria stocking Chain Bridge honey and many of the region’s top chefs favouring it in the kitchen, a dearth in production for a second year in the row would, in Willie’s words, be “very unwelcome”.

As yet he is unsure what to make of 2009. So far we have seen less rain and had more sun than the same period 12 months ago, but apart from the odd day, the thermometer hasn’t been taxed thus far. And bees don’t like the cool.

“It is better than this time last year,” Willie said cautiously. “And while things aren’t as bad as they might be, they’re not good either. We can manage until then, but if this August turns out to be as bad as last year then who knows what is going to happen. It’s in August that the bees are on the heather.

“Last August was a washout. If it’s like that the bees are confined to their hives – they can’t forage in the rain. It’s a crucial time for honey production. Coming on the back of what was a late spring it wasn’t ideal.”

Thankfully, Chain Bridge has other strings to its bow. Started 61 years ago in its present location by Willie’s father, the Robsons' love affair with bees goes back to at least the 1920s. Willie’s great grandfather kept 60 hives at Duddo in Northumberland. Five generations of the Robson family have now earned their living from honey, with Willie’s children Stephen, 34, Heather, 32, and Frances, 26, also now involved alongside their mother Daphne, 63.

Along the way Chain Bridge has diversified and now offers consumers a range of honey-related products from mustard to candles, polish, moisturisers, hand creams, soap, healing ointments and lozenges.

Diversifying has given the Robsons a new and welcome source of income which means they are better placed than many to ride out the downturns.

But honey production is still the backbone of Chain Bridge’s success. And while Willie can remember other devastating honey producing years such as 1963 (following one of the harshest winters on record) and 1985 (when rain again proved a washout), it is not a pattern he is keen to keep repeating.

With National Honey Week running between May 4-10 with its emphasis on encouraging families to get together and have fun cooking with the sweet sticky stuff, Willie hopes there will be enough to go around.

Now in its 11th year, celebrity chef Lesley Waters is backing what is set to be the UK’s sweetest celebratory week by launching a free family honey-based cookery guide.

Chain Bridge will be continuing its efforts to educate an increasingly receptive public about one of the oldest forms of farming.

In a good year, the farm’s bee population will swell to more than 50,000. The bees are housed in sheltered spots within 30 miles of Chain Bridge and in early May will be moved to low ground. In July they will be taken to the heather clad hills.

Each year the Robsons have seen their share of the honey market increase. Britons consume around 30,000 tonnes of honey a year – a figure that is rising by 11% annually. Of this, between 5,000 and 7,000 tonnes is domestically produced.

Last year, however, this figure fell to barely 2,000 tonnes as the weather and deadly bee viruses took their toll.

Dwindling honey supplies aren’t just a UK problem, though. Argentina, the world’s largest honey producer, had a 20,000-tonne shortfall due to drought and pasture being planted with soya beans for biofuels. In Australia and eastern Europe drought and too hot weather has also drastically reduced production.

But the poor British harvest is symptomatic of a wider malaise, which people such as Willie and researchers believe threatens the long-term prospects of not only the nation’s bee colonies but the 25% of the UK’s food production that relies on crops being pollinated by them.

The nation’s beehives contribute £165m to the economy by pollinating crops such as apples, pears, strawberries, blackberries and oilseed rape. In short, much of British horticulture is reliant on the health of the UK’s bees.

But they are struggling to overcome not only two miserable summers in succession (2007 was only saved by a late rally in August), but the deadly varroa infestation, a mite that attaches itself to honey bees and makes them susceptible to lethal viruses.

Chain Bridge has so far avoided the worst ravages of varroa – due, Willie says, to good bee management. But he admits he is going to have to spend more time with his bees. Another cold, wet summer forcing bees to spend more time in their hives, won’t help. But as Willie says: “If you are a commercial beekeeper, being an optimist is a prerequisite.”

Chain Bridge Honey Farm, Horncliffe, Berwick, Northumberland, (01289) 386362, www.chainbridgehoney.co.uk