Biodiversity & Ecology
We are privileged to work on a site so unique in the middle of the Cheshire Countryside. Protecting the Biodiversity & Ecology is key for us.
At Storengy UK's Stublach site, an exciting programme of bee breeding is taken place.
Due to the large size of the Stublach site and the controlled access, the careful introduction of native bees will enable bees to be bred on site for distribution across Cheshire and beyond. We also have a number of 'breeder' hives around the site. These contain native Cheshire bees which are on the decline, which we hope we can help reverse. The hives are hand made locally in Northwich, often using waste wood donated by Storengy UK and other local companies.
Honey at Stublach
The Stublach Honey will be available soon.
Learn More
Key fact about bees
A full colony can contain up to 50,000 bees
In the summer, worker bees only live for around 6 weeks
The Queen will lay 1,000+ eggs a day and eats twice her body weight each day
A teaspoon of honey is the lifetime's work of 12 bees
The bees on site are native to the UK. The scientific name is Apis Mellifera Mellifera but they are more commonly known as AMM's
AMM's are under threat from increasing importation of different races of bees who interbreed with the local bees changing their temperament, hardiness, production and breeding patterns.
To make one pound of honey requires 50,000 miles of flying and visiting 2,000,000 flowers.
If you would like to know more about bees and bee keeping visit: https://www.bbka.org.uk/
Ecology & Stublach
Storengy worked with ecological experts to prevent harm to the local environmental and protected species. From the very beginning, the construction team were made aware of endangered wildlife on site, and were able to rehouse them.
The endangered wildlife that we rehoused included great-crested newts and bats. Storengy UK provided habitats to enable these creatures to continue their natural breeding patterns. To compensate for a couple of dozen trees and shrubs that had to be felled during the construction process, Storengy UK replaced these in greater numbers in line with expert advice (between 85,000-100,000 trees and shrubs). Stublach is occupied by 8 tenant farms and Storengy UK consults regularly with the farming community to ensure that their work can continue safely, side-by-side with our own activities. Storengy UK rebuilt and maintains all of the secure fencing around the fields used for grazing livestock. We repaire hedgerows and clean ditches to ensure water drainage across the site.
We want to leave a lasting, positive legacy on the land and have planted a number of vegetable and fruit plants as part of our on-site allotment. This is not only contributing to the wellbeing of our staff, who participate in planting and harvesting, but also allows us to engage with the local community. The local Whitegate cubs group built bird boxes for us to encourage many of the different bird species found at Stublach.