Chris Rundle visits beekeeper Tony Richards, who reveals that honey is starting to flow again after a few catastrophic years

T ony Richards said: "Try this one," and dipped a plastic spoon into the jar. What I tasted was honey – but honey with a lingering, almost perfumed after-taste.

"Apple blossom honey," said Tony. "Now try this." And here was a completely different palate: a hint of caramel with a delicious, bittersweet finish.

"Hawthorn blossom and oilseed rape," said Tony.

Yet what was remarkable was not the fact that the honeys we were sampling in the shed at Tony's sea-front home in Blue Anchor, near Minehead, were so diverse in flavour – but that we were able to sample English honey at all.

This time last year serious odds were being laid on the entire honey industry being wiped out. What stocks of home-produced product there were would be sold out by Christmas, beekeepers forecast, as they counted the cost of depleted colonies and contemplated empty hives.

Last year the British bee sector was in deep crisis: the bees were simply vanishing – and no one really knew why.

But this summer, beekeepers are experiencing what many regard as a miraculous recovery in the bee population. While there's still a long way to go before the situation is back to normal – and no one is speaking too soon – the signs are hugely encouraging.

July sees the peak of honey flow, the busiest time for bees and their keepers. And, says Tony Richards, all the signs are there that it will be a phenomenally busy season.

"We're certainly having the best year we have had for four or five," he said.

"Things are looking much, much brighter than they have for a long time."

Honey-lovers everywhere will hope he is right. Official figures suggest that bee numbers have been falling by between 10 and 15 per cent a year – though scientists say since so many beekeepers are not officially registered with the government's bee unit, the actual rate could be twice as high.

The cause is still not easy to identify. Bees have been under attack for some years by the tiny varroa mite which arrived in this country in the 1990s – and which, having once been beaten back by insecticides, is now developing a worrying immunity. But the first signs are also being reported of so-called colony collapse disorder, where entire hives are suddenly struck by disease or even vacated, for no discernible reason.

Dramatic losses like these were first recorded in the US, where, in a single wave, colony collapse disorder affected 875,000 beehives across 35 states, causing between 35 and 90 per cent of the bee population to vanish.

Bees have also abruptly disappeared in Canada, Brazil, India and other parts of Europe, although the phenomenon is not entirely new: the earliest known instance dates from the 18th century.

One of the theories researchers have been studying relates to the possibility of bees suffering catastrophic damage to their immune systems – though what might be causing that has still to be determined. Theories have ranged from agricultural insecticides to a succession of cool, wet summers and even to wireless waves from mobile phones.

Researchers in Britain and Holland (where the problem is just as acute) have already noted a correlation between a decline in wild flowers and the falling bee numbers which, they say, is too significant to be a coincidence.

But as far as Tony Richards, a beekeeper with 40 years' experience, is concerned, there is only one root cause behind the disappearances: the weather.

The last two appalling summers, he says, have done incalculable damage, with all the wrong weather arriving at the wrong time to disrupt the fragile balance of the bees' life cycle.

"Last year was absolutely awful," he said. "We had queens hatching in late June and not mating properly: everything was going wrong.

"But this year things are definitely looking up. The bees have had an opportunity to make new queens and we're keeping our fingers crossed that this year will see a big improvement.

"We've just come through the June gap, when there's not much blossom around. But before that we must have had the best show of blossom I have seen in 40 years: the hawthorn was spectacular; there were masses of dandelions and plenty of oilseed rape.

"And if we get a few nights now when the temperature stays around 50 degrees, there should be plenty of clover honey around, too."

Single flower varieties of honey have become as popular in recent years as single variety ciders. And although he professes not to keep bees for the honey ("I just love messing about with bees"), Tony Richards' output can certainly satisfy most tastes, from the light, delicate dandelion honey from hives he places on the Somerset Levels near Glastonbury to what many would regard as the connoisseurs' choice: the deep-flavoured heather honey with its rich, autumnal notes made by bees placed on the high Exmoor moorland in late summer.

The bad news is that the loss of bee colonies has been enough to persuade many beekeepers to hang up their protective suits, veils and smokers: the good news is that the authorities are taking the bee problem seriously. After all, in this country alone, bees are responsible for pollinating crops worth £200 million, at a conservative estimate.

The British government has now followed the Americans, the French and the European Commission in earmarking money for research into what precisely is bugging the bees, setting up a £10 million pool to finance it. It is also launching a 10-year "Healthy Bees" plan, which aims to identify and get in touch with as many as 20,000 beekeepers to encourage them to register on the national database and alert the National Bee Unit to health problems.

The money, says Tony Richards, is more than welcome – but it must be properly spent.

"The research programme is actually supposed to look at all pollinators, when we really need £10 million spent on bees alone," he said.

"It's true other insects, such as ants and hover flies, do make a contribution. But when it comes to pollination, the honey bee is the king."