Environmental group want to keep honey bees

An environmental group on the Isles of Scilly wish to keep honey bees on St Mary's.

Transition Scilly have taken management of an additional plot of land close to the Community Orchard at Trenoweth, which they have run since 2010.

They now want to achieve a first for the islands by "adopting the Austrian/Slovenian Bee house approach" and acquiring four 'AZ' bee hives located within their own bee house.

Transition Scilly, a not-for-profit association that aims to provide a community-led response to the threats of climate change and resource depletion, has requested £2,000 from the Council's Community Fund to help buy the hives.

Secretary Andrew Combes wrote in the group's application: "It's probably fair to say that bee keeping on Scilly is currently not in the best of health and that we could do with seeing an expansion in the number of hives and bee keepers, as well as suitable forage for the bees.

"As with all Transitional Scilly work this will be a project that will encourage community engagement with our existing bee keepers, potential new keepers and to act as an educational resource for the school."

They added that in the wider sense, "honey bees and all insect life in general need as much help as possible".

Transition Scilly's application is one of five to the Council's Community Fund following its decision not to support the Folk Festival or One Act Play Festival last month.