Creswell Crags is buzzing after taking on more than 20,000 new recruits

The bees, which began their employment about a month ago, will live on site and act as key pollinators for the many plants and flowers growing around the gorge.

They will also produce honey which will be sold in the Creswell Crags museum gift shop.

Animals have inhabited Creswell Crags for at least 125,000 years, and as part of a drive to boost today’s wildlife and ecology in the park, the team at Creswell Crags have partnered with More Bees Please to bring the colony of bees to the site.

Paul Baker, Creswell Crags director, said: “Bees are vital to our planet, but are under threat from climate change, as well as urban development and intensive farming.

“It’s important we all understand just what bees do for humans; we need them to pollinate our food crops and other wildlife need them to pollinate the trees and plants in their habitats.

“By bringing honey bees to Creswell Crags, we’re doing our small part to keep this incredibly important species alive. We are also very excited that the Crags bees will be able to produce local honey, which will be on sale in our museum gift shop.”

The bees will live in a quiet, relatively untouched area of the site, away from the main pedestrian areas, giving them a haven in which to continue their duties.

They will receive lodgings in exchange for their efforts, as well as a generous supply of nectar and pollen rich plants, some of which are very rare.

More Bees Please is a Sheffield-based beekeeping business, producing honey, beeswax candles and beeswax-based balms.

With more than 300 hives in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, the ethical beekeepers ensure the bees have enough honey stores to survive the winter, without feeding sugar syrup, improving the quality of bees in the area, and also the number of pollinators in the local vicinity.

More Bees Please also aim to introduce hives to as many schools, raise awareness with children and hopefully find beekeepers of tomorrow.