The Cornish bee has gone from near extinction to helping save the world

Cornwall has now become a centre for global research

The Cornish bee has gone from near extinction to helping save the world

The survival of the honey bee is essential for the survival of the planet. It plays a huge role in conserving the biodiversity of our countryside and food supply.

The Native Cornish Bee (Apis mellifera mellifera or Amm) has fought back from near extinction to play a vital role in global research with beekeepers in Cornwall being an essential part of a huge success story.

One of the places where the Cornish bees are thriving is Godolphin House, near Helston.

It is the very first National Trust property in the UK to be named as a natural haven for native bees, with 20 hives each containing 40-50,000 bees.

The man behind the Godolphin project was a Flying Lizard before he was a beekeeper.

Bob Black was a member of the post-punk music scene in London, working with everyone from all-female band The Slits to Madness, before moving to Cornwall, forming popular band Falmouth Soul Sensation and becoming a beekeeper.

He is now a member of B4, a Community Interest Company representing beekeepers, which works to conserve, protect and increase the population of these bees.

As he kitted me out in a beekeeper’s suit to get up close and personal with Godolphin’s dark Cornish bees, Bob said: “Bees are under threat, as everyone knows. What we are hoping to do is create enough bee havens across the country so that native bees become commonplace both for beekeepers and in the wild.

“There is a groundswell which really started in Cornwall. People like Rodger Dewhurst and Jo Widdicombe were founders of identifying the native bee in Cornwall.

“They have created an environment where big things are happening on a national and international basis.

“Not only are we saving our Cornish bees on a very local basis, we are encouraging beekeepers in Cornwall to take part in our native bee programme and not to import foreign bees and queens, which can be aggressive and introduce potentially fatal ailments.”

Cornwall has now become a centre for world research in native stocks from across the globe.

Bob said: “Beekeepers across the planet can maintain biodiversity by keeping their own stocks in their own native areas. That’s the perfect scenario for maintaining the health of honey bees.”

In the 1920s experts were convinced that Isle of Wight Disease had wiped out all the European dark bees across the country and Northern Europe.

Twenty to thirty years ago people suddenly found little pockets in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland where the native bee had survived quite happily and was thriving.

Bob added: “Cornish beekeepers started breeding from them and it’s been a huge success story. Cornwall is one of the few places in the world to successfully repopulate native bees.”

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There are also native bees at other sites across Cornwall including the Eden Project, Heligan, Mount Edgecombe and Paradise Park.

The Eden Project has just celebrated becoming a protected native Cornish bee reserve by unveiling a new observation hive which will enable visitors see how the fascinating creatures live.

The Great Hive Mind is a striking installation made from reclaimed scaffolding poles. It contains an observation hive which is home to a colony of around 25,000 bees expected to rise to more than 50,000 by next summer.

It is situated in Eden’s Outer Estate in a field full of wild flowers above Eden’s Wild Chile area.

Dr Jo Elworthy, Eden’s director of interpretation, said: “Pollinators, including bees, pollinate around a third of our crops and help our wild flowers to survive and thrive.

“We’re proud to be working with B4 in becoming a European dark honey bee reserve. It’s really important that we look after regional biodiversity. Beekeepers can choose to keep bees local to their region and we can all help conserve these and other pollinators by ensuring our gardens and green spaces in our community, at work, and at school are pollinator-friendly by planting wildflowers or leaving some areas to go wild.”

Pollenize, a social enterprise that brings together the power of community and technology to reverse pollinator decline, supplied the remote hive monitoring system and bring a research element to the exhibit.

It also monitors the hives at Godolphin with all the information being beamed around the world for beekeepers, experts and students to share.

It really is time to celebrate our Cornish honey bee.