Three heroic beekeepers have told GB News how they managed to save multiple bee colonies from the recent wildfires in the New Forest.
Founder of Beckys Beezzzs Becky Chadd and her three beekeepers, Richard, Muhammad and James, joined the People's Channel to recall what happened and how they managed to rescue the bees before the blaze destroyed them.
Ms Chadd praised the keepers for rushing to the rescue in a now viral social media post after receiving an alert from a New Forest Ranger.
Recounting what happened, she told GB News: "So I got a phone call about 7:30 on Sunday evening from one of the rangers to tell us that there was a forest fire that was spreading quite rapidly and the bees were in danger.
"And if we could get down there, get down as soon as we could to try and get them out."
After arriving at the scene, the three keepers found that the bees had stopped flying due to the fire, making their rescue mission slightly easier.
She continued: "My worry was what time we could get down there, but fortunately, because it was late in the evening, the boys got there about nine, and the bees had stopped flying, so pretty swiftly closed them up the way that we have our hives, and we were able to shut them up quickly.
"They were already strapped, and we were very lucky that we've got other bee farmers around that were able to come out and help to get them loaded, but the boys were the ones that were there."
Describing how they felt in that moment, keeper Richard told GB News they had to make a split-second decision on whether the colonies could be saved in time.
He said: "When we approached it, the fire was quite close to the colonies, so we had to make a decision very quickly on whether or not to remove them from the apiary or keep them there and try and just water down the area.
"And after we saw flames on the horizon, we decided that, no, we've just got to make the decision to move the bees to a safer place, which we did."
Noting the response they gave had to their rescue mission online, keeper James admitted that the response has been "very unexpected".
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He said: "It's been pretty unexpected to be honest.
"I think it was Mohammed's idea to take some photos on the night we took that photo sent to Becky, and then it kind of spread from there. It was very unexpected."
Ms Chadd admitted she feels "quite emotional" seeing the support for their rescue.
She told the People's Channel: "The support has been incredible. I feel quite emotional as well, if I'm honest.
"The thought of the bees not surviving, if the fire had got that far, they would have died."
She continued: "Some people said, 'oh, what about the hives?' It's not the hives, it's the bees. They're our work, they're so important to us. But yeah, it's just literally gone viral.
"It's been incredible to know that so many people out there to help, and it's not just the bees.
"It's the other animals in the forest as well, they can kind of run out of the way on their own, but the bees can't."
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