Bees, clover, cows: to the dairy farmer they should go together like sun, grass and silage.

But bees face two threats: disease and, less alarming, an often-uninformed public.

Pest exterminators were recently called in when bees formed a massive swarm on a fence around a Hamilton property, prompting a concerted reaction from Hamilton bee-keepers.

‘Save the bees, don’t kill them,’ they cried. ‘We’re the people to call if you find a bee swarm.’

Bees pollinating clover pastures is vital to farmers. And the bee population is in big trouble.

Worldwide, apiarists have been distressed by their dying hives, not least in the US, where a syndrome dubbed ‘colony collapse disorder’ has meant bee losses of 30-90%.

One factor is common to all bee-keepers and widely accepted to be at the heart of the problem: the worldwide plague of the varroa mite. This reddish crab-like parasite, just visible to the naked eye, sucks the bees’ blood, damaging the developing pupae so that they emerge deformed from the comb. Most damaging of all, they spread viruses. In Waikato, bee-keeper Chris Cable says orchardists and farmers are complaining there are no bees.

‘The pressure is on for less intensive farming to reduce nitrogen in waterways. Nitrogen will have to come from clover, and that means we must have bees.

‘The only way to boost clover is for bees to pollinate the clover.’

Varroa has decimated wild hives that had served farmers well. These hives were typically found in abandoned buildings and rotting stumps.

‘Those are all dead and gone,’ Cable says. ‘The same situation will arise in South Island with arrival of varroa mites in Canterbury.

‘As a result of varroa our bee-keeping practices have changed dramatically. If our practices are not timely, we will lose our hives.

‘Already some pasture farmers are paying for hives and that will become more widespread. We have hives on clover country: The days of royalties being paid to farmers are pretty much history. Farmers do much better from bees on their farm than the bee-keepers.

‘We have two big dairy farms in Cambridge who asked for hives. We still give the owners a couple of kilos of honey a year but that is dying out.

‘It used to be a bucket of honey for allowing us to put hives on the farm. But with the average beekeeper paying $40,000 a year to control the varroa mite, things have changed. Other costs have increased, like labour and vehicle travel costs.

‘It’s hard work, but there is still a dollar in it.’

Moving and maintaining hives around Waikato and Bay of Plenty orchards and farms means 16-to-18-hour days are common at this time of the year.

The crucial connection between varroa and viruses was discovered by a British bee scientist called Brenda Ball. Two years ago, the painstaking work done by Ball and three other government-funded colleagues at the Rothamsted Research institute in Hertfordshire was broken up, and Ball is no longer working in the field.

A 130,000-name petition just presented to the British Government by the British Bee-keepers Association seeks urgent funds for more research in the face of bee deaths and dire native honey shortages.

‘We need the money now,’ says Stuart Bailey, the chairman of Rowse. ‘I compare this to foot-and-mouth and blue tongue. This is an environmental catastrophe going on around us.’

The company is giving $300,000 to fund bee research at Sussex University and has put ‘Save the Honeybee’ on the labels of its dwindling stocks of honey.

In addition to their honey, British bees are worth an estimated $500 million to agriculture through pollinating crops including orchard fruits, carrots, broccoli and onions.

The UK Government has acknowledged there is a problem.