To help control mites in the bees, he uses a natural product based on thyme oil.

WSJ: Hector Alvarez: How a Beekeeper Builds Buzz | Creating

The project will help raise awareness of the threats facing local bees and offer opportunities to get involved.

BBC: Bee Part of It with BBC Nottingham - Keep bees buzzing

He agreed to help, and soon was sent some of the bees that van Engelsdorp had collected.

NEWYORKER: Stung

Wildlife campaign group Friends of the Earth called on Prime Minister David Cameron to launch an action plan to help British bees.

BBC: Honey harvest 'devastated' by wet summer

In order to help protect close relatives, termites have been found to explode during fights, bees die after stinging, while the members of another species of ant have been found to condemn themselves to death by sealing in a nesting colony from the outside.

BBC: Earth News - Heroic altruistic ants face death alone to save colony