IT has been a good year for bees and keepers in Ludlow and south Shropshire will hope to have shared in a good year nationally.

The results of the British Beekeepers Association’s annual Honey Survey reveal that the average colony of bees in England produced 26lbs (11.8 kilos) of honey this year - an increase of 5lbs (2.7 kilos) per hive over last year’s crop.

Despite a dismal start, a quarter (25 per cent) of beekeepers reported ‘the right weather’ as having the biggest potential effect on honey quantity in this year’s crop.

It was a difficult start with a cold and windy spring resulting in late flowering in early summer but after that things improved with a long and warm autumn.

Weather conditions and other factors which influence the honey crop, such as the supply of forage and the impact of invader species including the varroa mite, vary enormously across the country.

The East has again had the best honey crop of any region in England with an average of 31 lbs of honey per hive, with the majority of beekeepers attributing this to both good weather and an abundant variety of forage.

But the lowest yield was in North West with just 19.9lbs (nine kilos) and the Midlands did not do much better with an average yield of 23.9 lbs.