A Callington supermarket was visited by a group of beekeepers recently – and sent them away with two large tubs of sugar free of charge.

The visit was to the town’s Tesco store and the beekeepers were members of the Cornish bee preservation group BIPCo, which is involved in a pilot project to collect left-over white sugar donated by the store chain to help feed rare native bees.

BIPCo (the Bee Improvement Programme for Cornwall) was set up to conserve and protect the endangered bee population, which has declined by a third since 2007.

In particular, the group wishes to protect the native Cornish black bee, which has a natural resistance to mites and disease.

The sugar is made into a syrup and fondant as a replacement for honey or nectar.

The project has been trialled in Callington before being rolled out across selected Tesco stores in Devon and Cornwall.