A vandal attack on two hives at Gwent Wildlife Trust’s Ebbw Vale offices has resulted in the deaths of thousands of honey bees and their young.

The beehives were installed in partnership with Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council as part of the Pollinators for Life Project funded by Welsh Government last year.

The project aims to help pollinating insects, such as the honeybee, hoverflies, solitary bees and wasps amongst others - and the recent attack is seen as a major setback.

Veronika Brannovic, Living Valleys Manager for Gwent Wildlife Trust, said, “This is a particularly difficult time for bees as they are starting to become active and look for food. Spring weather has been unpredictable but our colonies had started to produce larvae within the hives.

“We came in to work to find one of the hives on its side with the contents tipped out. The lid had been tipped off the other hive and the sides damaged by large stones and logs being thrown at it. Bees need to maintain a temperature of around 36 degrees within the hive before they start to suffer. The rain and cold temperature the previous night meant that around two thirds of the bees died and, because the hive filled with water, all their larvae died.”

Along with the vandalising of the bee hives, the Trust’s site has also been affected by an ongoing pollution problem caused by a leaking and contaminated drain that has made the ponds uninhabitable for the toads, frogs, newts and dragonflies that had made the former steelworks their home.

GWT has had to stop all school visits to the site and activities with groups such as scouts for the foreseeable future.

Although a double blow for wildlife in Ebbw Vale, GWT will continue to work with lots of schools and groups throughout Blaenau Gwent within schools and group’s own grounds to make sure that children and young people can still enjoy the wide variety of nature on their doorstep.