Although he will be happy to enjoy the sunshine predicted for today's Bath and West Show, beekeeper Tony Richards will have been grateful for the rain which arrived yesterday.

For it might just have given him hope that this season won't be a complete write-off.

"We desperately need rain for the field beans, because they need to produce plenty of nectar. If they do then, hopefully, the bees will be able to pick up a bit. They certainly need it," he said.

Like hundreds of beekeepers Tony has been through an anxious few years – and visitors to the Bees and Honey Section at the show will have plenty of opportunity to find out why.

Bee populations all over the world have been declining, some disappearing completely, with experts blaming everything from shifting global weather patterns to the over-use of pesticides, even – according to the latest theory – radiation from mobile phone traffic.

Official figures suggest that bee numbers in Britain 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. 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.

Meanwhile 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 with bees responsible for pollinating crops worth £200 million a year in this country the situation cannot be allowed to go unchecked, which is why a £10m research project looking at the risks and the whole issue of bee health is underway.

Last year was a slightly easier one for Tony, who from his home on the sea front in Blue Anchor, near Minehead, transports hives for his bees to forage everywhere from the wild flower meadows of the Somerset Levels to the breezy, heather-clad slopes of Exmoor.

But so far this year has been the trickiest he has known in 40 years of beekeeping. Bees have swarmed. Eight colonies have simply died out. Others have produced hardly any honey: Tony is well down on his usual cropping figures.

And it's partly down to the weather, yet again – particularly the unseasonal heatwave that May brought, with temperatures so hot one Somerset keeper discovered the wax combs were actually melting in the hive.

"When it's like that the bees don't produce honey.

"They gather around the entrance to the hive and spend all their time fanning air into it to protect their young from getting too hot," said Tony.

"Either that or they will bring back water and leave it inside to evaporate, which also has a cooling effect."

Anyone who thinks producing a jar of tasty honey is just a matter of letting the bees get on with it may well be surprise to learn some of the intricacies of the craft when they visit the section at the show.

"The great thing is that all the publicity about the problems the bees are facing has done some good, because not only are a lot more people taking up beekeeping, more and more people want to find out about how honey is produced – and that's a very encouraging thing to be happening," said Tony.