A beekeeper found his grandfather's long lost hives abandoned and thriving in a quarry - and turned them into a colony of millions.<br /><br />Ross Main, 36, grew up with granddad William Main, a beekeeper and gamekeeper, regularly taking him to check up on his bees.<br /><br />William passed away from cancer in 2007 aged 77 - with Ross assuming his hives had been sold on.<br /><br />After the birth of his own son in 2015 Ross was inspired to try and find them.<br /><br />He travelled from his home in Fife in Scotland to the East Lothian quarry where his granddad had kept his.<br /><br />Ross was stunned to discover an original hive still filled with an active colony - which had taken care of itself for years.<br /><br />The hive was hundreds of metres down an old track which was overgrown with gorse.<br /><br />Ross then began to teach himself beekeeping - collecting the bees from his grandfather's original hive.<br /><br />It was dilapidated so Ross got hold of a beekeeping suit and a beehive and learned how to transfer the colony to their new home.<br /><br />He then grew them into a population of five million bees split into around 100 colonies - all descended from William's bees.<br /><br />Ross' business Main’s Apiaries now sells honey to farm shops from three harvests a year.
