Bees find sanctuary in church roof

Posted: 20 Jul 2012 @ 09:07

by a staff reporter

A TYPE of honeybee, thought to be extinct, has been found alive and well in a small church in Northumberland.

It had been thought that the British black bee had been wiped out by a strain of Spanish flu in 1919, but a small hive has been found breeding in the roof of Holy Trinity, Whitfield, 800 feet up in the Pennines. It is thought that they have been there for up to a century.

The rare bees, Apis mellifera mellifer, were discovered after some dead specimens ...

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