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As the UK honeybee population continues to decline, the Co-op has launched a project to helprestore bee numbers - Plan Bee. The project aims to encourage an increase in the number of urban beekeepers in three British cities - London, Manchester and Inverness.

With the UK honeybee population spiralling towards extinction, Plan Bee certainly seems a laudable idea, agrees one of Inverness's already active beekeepers, but one to be approached with caution.

Alan Teale first started keeping bees as a young vet in Wiltshire in the 1970s.

"I had a client I used to visit who kept bees and I just got interested," he explained.

"Myself and a colleague in the practice decided to get into beekeeping together."

As he moved out of veterinary practice and into research, Alan continued to keep bees, even while working in Africa. However, these proved to be very bad tempered and aggressive and he gave up the hobby until he returned to Scotland 12 years ago.

Now retired, he is halfway through his three-year term as president of the Scottish Beekeepers Association, which has between 1200 and 1300 members.

"I used to say the wild population is being decimated, but decimated is the wrong word because it means a loss of one in 10, but we are talking about a 90 per cent reduction," Alan said.

"Without beekeepers there are not going to be any honeybees in the UK in a short period. Those not being managed by beekeepers are being depleted through disease and other factors, such as a reduction in biodiversity."

The role of pesticides and chemicals is hard to quantify, as too is the impact of climate change, Alan believes.

"I wouldn't like to predict the effect of climate change," he said. "It might be a good thing, but warm wet winters are particularly damaging to bee populations and that is what we are more likely to get in the short term."

The decline of the bee population is worrying, though Alan does not subscribe to the worst case scenario.

"I'm not one of those who believe that if the honeybee disappears, then humanity will not be far behind," he said.

"That might be the case - but it won't be because the honeybee disappears."

The loss of the honeybee will, however, have a major impact on our food chain, making the role of the beekeeper more important than ever before.

"It no longer does to keep a few bees around and expect them to look after themselves," Alan warned.

"Some beekeepers haven't upped their game enough. Consequently there have been big losses. Beekeeping is no longer something people can do only when the mood takes them. If you keep bees, you have to be pro-active and that requires you to drop other things to do it."

That is why Alan is adamant that new beekeepers must have proper training.

However, there are other concerns which must be addressed, such as the source of their bees.

"What we don't want is the importation of bees from other parts of the world or even other parts of the UK," he warned.

"You do not want to undermine the local adaptations. Even if you brought bees from Ullapool, that is a very different environment to Inverness."

Imported bees could interbreed with the local indigenous North European dark honeybee, which has found a refuge in the Highlands, eroding the advantages it has evolved for the Highland climate.

There is also a fear that imported bee colonies might breed too quickly when conditions are favourable, leaving them vulnerable to any changes.

"Local bees breed a little more slowly and not unsustainably," Alan explained.

There are many factors to consider, but if the Co-op take these into account, then Plan Bee will do no harm and could potentially do much good, Alan believes.

"The loss of bees in the UK is a big problem and becoming a bigger problem - not so much in terms of honey production, because in the UK that is not a big business," Alan said.

"Britain is predominantly a hobbyist beekeeping nation with most of the honey produced eaten by friends and family of the beekeeper. That's good, because it means bees and hives are spread all over the country."

The drawback is that the bees are not necessarily where farmers want them to be.

"A couple of days ago I was contacted by someone very concerned about the pollination of their apples," Alan said.

"He had a very good blossoming, but his yield was very low because he only had a five per cent pollination."

At least beekeepers, scientists and the population in general are aware of the problem - which is the first step to solving it, Alan said.

However, he added: "To be honest, I don't see many other glimmers of hope.

"We've recently seen the removal of set aside and that can't be a good thing. I see why it's been done. Food prices are going up, so it releases more land to grow food, but it is a short term fix we might regret further down the line."

At least if locals do sign up for Plan Bee, they can be assured Inverness is a good place to have a hive.

"We have a relatively mild and dry climate. Both are good for bees," Alan said.

"And in a city like this with its gardens and parks, there is lots of biodiversity."

The area has not been immune to the problems ravaging the bee population, however.

An outbreak of foulbreed, a disease which kills off the bee larvae, cost a number of Inverness colonies last year.

The outbreak was spotted by a relatively new beekeeper, someone who had done the job properly, joining both the Scottish and Inverness Beekeepers Associations, which Alan rates as one of the best local groups in Scotland and reading all the journals. Just the kind of dedicated new beekeeper he wants to see fulfil the age old contract between bee and keeper.

"We look after the bees, ensure their survival and in turn we take their honey," he explained.

"But they need something to survive in winter. Traditionally that was sugar syrup, but now there is a commercially produced food. We take the honey, but replace it with a product that is less valuable to us, but almost as valuable to the bees."

There is, Alan acknowledges, something special about tasting the honey you have produced yourself - with the help of a few thousand insects - and perhaps even more special about being able to give it away to friends and family.

For a scientist - Alan is a retired professor of animal genetics - bees are a fascinating subject for study, literally in his own back yard.

"You have to think of a colony as a single animal, which it is in biological terms," Alan said. "The queen and drones are the reproductive system and the others are the bone and muscle and possibly the brain.

"There is much about the biology of bees we don't yet understand. In many ways they are sophisticated animals.

"They have a language - they remember information and transmit it to other members of the colony, the waggle dance being the classic example. Some biologists think they have the next most sophisticated language after much higher animals such as humans, cetaceans and some primates."

The good news for bees and beekeepers is that beekeeping is diversifying. Today's beekeepers come from many walks of life and range from teenagers to politicians. Business Secretary Vince Cable is a beekeeper and even Prime Minister David Cameron is honorary president of the Oxfordshire Beekeepers Association.

"People have an image of beekeeping and that image doesn't fit any more," he said.

"Beekeepers are no longer slightly older quirky people who wear funny clothes - and that has got to be a good thing."

c.macleod@inverness-courier.co.uk