A Queen Bee rearing project in Bermuda could help efforts to reverse the decimation of bee populations around the world.

The announcement of the groundbreaking programme is already creating a buzz among the Island's beekeeping community.

Randolph Furbert, a beekeeper for 37 years, said the Throne Speech announcement was also timely as just this week a disease was discovered on-Island which could harm the local population.

The Throne Speech said: "A Queen Bee Rearing Project will seek to mitigate the global phenomena of collapsing bee populations and Bermuda's anticipated success in this initiative is expected to yield international outreach in this critical area of the food chain."

Mr. Furbert told The Royal Gazette: "This is a very important announcement and will certainly help us locally, although I don't know about internationally."

He explained that a variety of diseases are affecting hives around the globe, and one has just been found in Bermuda.

"We have just discovered the existence of the varroa mite, and we thought Bermuda was disease-free," he said.

"It could decimate hives here and so there is going to have to be a whole new way of keeping bees now on the Island."

The varroa destructor is a parasitic mite that attacks honey bees, causing the varroatosis disease. The mites attach themselves onto the bees, weakening them by sucking out their hemolymph fluid.

As a result they also pass on viruses such as deformed wing virus.

Mr. Furbert, of Hamilton Parish, said presence of varroatosis was discovered by a beekeeper in Southampton who was removing a colony from a ceiling.

"There has been an ongoing bee industry in Bermuda, and tourists and locals alike take our honey home," he said.

"This project will allow us to repopulate, as the Queen is the most important bee in the hive."

Around the world the decimation of the honey bee population is causing increasing alarm.

Bees not only produce honey, but pollinate trees, flowers, plants and vegetation which we consume as food.

Scientists say the varroa mite is partly to blame for bee Colony Collapse Disorder, but pesticides and prolonged spells of wet weather are also thought to be responsible.

In the US, bee rental for pollination has been a crucial element of US agriculture, and some beekeepers earn more from renting their bees out for pollination than they do from honey production.

However, trucking colonies around the US to pollinate crops has also been criticised for helping to spread viruses and mites among colonies.

It is expected the Government of Bermuda will provide further information on its Queen Bee Rearing Project in a forthcoming press conference.

Last night Stuart Hayward, chairman of the Bermuda Environmental and Sustainability Taskforce (BEST), said: "It is good to acknowledge the importance of bees in food production.

"However, so long as the land on which food can be produced continues to be converted to commercial and residential use it won't matter how many bees, Queen or otherwise, we rear.

"We need a concerted and comprehensive approach to food security on the Island, of which bees is a single, though vital component.

"It would be far more impressive to hear of a series of programmes to: a) protect all land with food-growing potential from the threat or reality of development; b) provide carrot and stick incentives to encourage land to be added to the bank of arable land, and for arable land to be actively used for food production; and c) expand the number, knowledge base and skills of food producers, perhaps combining it with the current effort to expand vocational training."