A Sutton vicar whose own bees have mysteriously died out has vowed to help save the insect from extinction.

The Rev Taffy Davies, of St James’ Church, who has kept honeybees for 11 years, has a passion for the little buzz-balls.

But after losing the last of his four hives over a matter of days, he has resolved to take drastic action, moving to ‘Plan Bee’.

In this month’s parish magazine, Taffy gave out free wild flower seeds to his parishioners in a bid to provide a more bee-friendly environment for the rapidly decreasing population.

He said: "This is the worst it’s ever been. I lost all my bees.

"They made it through the winter but then I went to have a look at them the other day and the few that were left were all dead, the queen had gone. I’ve bought a new colony now but we just don’t know what’s happening.

"It’s really, really worrying, bees are very important, this is happening all over the world.

"The problem is nobody really knows what’s happening to the bees. There are lots of theories – some people even say it’s mobile phones."

The grandfather of two teamed up with the bee supporters The Co-operative to give away a bee-friendly cocktail of wild flowers in his parish newsletter as part of its action ‘Plan B’ to raise awareness of the plight of bees.

Dave Smith, a spokesman for The Co-op, said: "We’re delighted to hear that (Taffy) has been giving the seeds away to his parishioners. This follows on from our give-away to try and encourage people to plant flowers.

"This is a special mix of wild flowers which have been particularly selected to attract bees."

Experts say without the tiny creatures, whose population has halved over the last 25 years, the future of agriculture is under threat.

Dave added: "The honeybee population is in decline and we are doing all we can to find out why and prevent it.

"A third of all the food we eat is pollinated by bees – and it’s the nice stuff too, like strawberries and broccoli, so we wouldn’t starve if we lost bees but we would have a very boring diet.

"There are a whole load of things people can do to help the bees like planting seeds, becoming bee keepers or just by being aware of the fact that there is an issue."

To find out more go to www.britishbee.org.uk .