Uni Conducts Sting Operation on Bees

Honey bees have taken up residence, mainly beetwixt the cavities of exterior walls, in D block on Glyndŵr University’s Wrexham campus. The building affected is dedicated to offices for operations staff rather than students.

The colonies had attracted the attention of staff and pupils, with honey being spotted on parts of the walls. The bees have been beehaving with no reports have been received of anyone being stung by the bees, which are thought to be from a particularly docile species.

Early last week a large number ‘swarmed’ in search of a new home, at which point experts were brought in to ensure they could be moved away from the campus to a specialist facility on Hope Mountain.’

Derek Jones, a senior lecturer in built environment at Glyndŵr Universibee and a keen beekeeper, was on hand to organise the move and provide a new home for the swarming bees. He and a number of other beekeepers in the area are working to protect colonies and to try to develop populations of the British black bee, which was rendered virtually extinct in the early part of the last century but is making a steady comeback. Derek said the bees found at the university were close in type to the black bee and could prove important nationally. He added: “A number of researchers at universities around the country are studying this issue, and they are aware of these colonies.”

Bees across Europe are under threat from a number of factors, including the varroa mite which weakens the immune systems of affected insects. Derek said the beekeeping world had responded by introducing careful management of hives and treatment for varroa, but that this had led to a bees becoming increasingly resistant to the treatment itself. He added: “What we are trying to do, in North Wales and across the country as a whole, is to find feral colonies that have not died out, and these bees seem to belong in this category. They might be of national importance.”

Plans are being made for the protection of the remaining bees at the university to avoid a sticky situation, but no word if they are thinking of launching their own Uni honey range.