Beehives create a candy-coloured landscape in Aberdeenshire

Beehives scattered across a hillside as part of The Co-operatives Plan Bee campaign, to help save British honeybees, are adding a candy-coloured flash of colour to the autumn landscape on land farmed by The Co-operative Farms near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.

The 200 brightly – painted beehives, which can house up to seven million bees, were bought earlier this year by The Co-operative Farms and The Co-operative Groups Scottish membership as part of Plan Bee and to produce honey.

The hives spent the early part of the summer on the Monymusk Estate farmed for Sir Archibald Grant by The Co-operative Farms and on Richard Ratcliffes Fraser Farm, also farmed by The Co-operative Farms. The hives were then moved up on the heather to produce heather honey, which has a distinctive rich taste.

The hives have now been moved to a more sheltered location at Monymusk and Fraser Farm, to allow the bees to form a winter cluster by clustering around the queen bee to keep her warm and alive.

The hives are being managed for The Co-operative Farms by Murray McGregor, who is one of Scotlands biggest bee-keepers. Murray said: Working with these Co-operative bees has been a real pleasure. The bees are very good tempered and have produced some excellent honey this year.

Launched in January 2009, The Co-operatives 475,000 Plan Bee campaign aims to raise awareness of honeybee decline, fund research, and encourage people to help bees and plant bee-friendly wildflowers

both photographs were taken by Ross McGregor

The Co-operative Group stands apart from other major retailers in the UK as a business, which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by more than five million consumers.

With core interests in food, financial services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of 15 billion, employs 120,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets serving more than 20 million customers per week.

Following the acquisition of the Somerfield supermarket chain in March 2009, The Co-operative Food is the fifth largest food retailer. The Co-operative Financial Services is one of the largest and most diversified financial mutual businesses, operating The Co-operative Bank, The Co-operative Insurance and Britannia.

The Co-operative is the UKs number one provider of funeral services, the third largest retail pharmacy chain, a leading travel retailer, supplying the travel needs of more than three million people annually, and is the UKs largest farmer.

Among its other businesses are The Co-operative Motor Group, The Co-operative Electrical Shop and The Co-operative Legal Services.