The Co-operative Group which launched a 10 point programme to help save the honey be called ‘Plan Bee’ has announced funding for Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders (BIBBA) to find and map the locations of native black honey bees and their hybrids.

The native black British bee has evolved to cope with the seasons here and developed a thick black hair covering its body. There is talk that the decline of bees in Britain is partly due to beekeepers using foreign queens producing bees that are unsuited to our climate. This has happened because the native black bees doesnt produce as much honey as its foreign counterparts but if you take the honey production over the lifespan of the hives the native black bee should win because CCD is not as common.

Our advice is dont buy foreign queens and bees, seek out native, black honey bees and queens to populate your hives. Its our native bee, we should be proud of it and try to preserve it. Greed will be the death of us all!!