Tag: World Bee Day

Pupils from Leith Walk Primary School become beekeepers to celebrate World Bee Day

As part of their sustainability and biodiversity initiative, Multrees Walk is home to four thriving beehives hosting over 250,000 honeybees. 

Urban beekeeping, as it’s known, aims to address the decline in bee populations while encouraging environmental regeneration within city setting communities. Multrees Walk, alongside Scottish sustainable honey business, Webster Honey, is not only contributing to this bee conservation but also creating educational opportunities for schools to learn more about the importance of urban bee keeping.

Leigh Aitchison, Centre Manager from Multrees Walk said: “We are obviously well known for being home to some of the world’s most famous designer brands, but we are also proud to be home to over 250,000 honeybees.

Perched high on the roof, Multrees Walk provides the perfect setting and a safe environment for the bees. The bees can fly up to three miles, with Princes Street Gardens, Holyrood Park, Inverleith Park and the Meadows all easily accessible from the roof of Multrees Walk.”

To celebrate World Bee Day, (today, 20 May) Multrees Walk invited pupils from nearby Leith Walk Primary School to find out more about urban bee keeping from Webster Honey.  The school children started with a short talk about the importance of bees to our ecology, the threats they face, their life cycle and a bit about how beekeepers care for them.

The pupils then donned beekeeping suits to get up and close personal to the bees, trying to spot the queen bee and learning how much work a worker bee has to do to make one jar of honey. 

Meik Molitor, Head Beekeeper at Webster Honey said: “I absolutely love getting to teach children about honeybees – how important they are to our ecology and how much we need them for our food.

“But the best thing is seeing their reaction when I open the hive and how they get really engaged and involved with actually tending the hive.

“Bees thrive in a number of areas and do just as well in urban settings as they do in rural locations. By integrating rooftop apiaries into our shopping centres, we are building a deeper connection between people and the natural world.”

Honey from the hives is collected once or twice a year (after the summer months) to make delicious jars of honey.

Each hive can produce on average 20-25kg of honey (90 – 110 jars) each year but Webster Honey nly take the extra honey, leaving enough to feed the bees through the winter months.

For further information on Multrees Walk retailers, please visit:

www.multreeswalk.co.uk/whats-happening/

For further information of Webster Honey please visit:

https://www.websterhoney.com

Photo credit: Julie Howden

Plant and Share Month returns to help people grow together

The nationwide campaign run by the Soil Association’s Food for Life Get Togethers programme will be bringing people together again for its third year between 22nd April – 20th May.

Plant and Share Month is a celebration of growing and community, rooted in the experience of sowing, planting and sharing. The event continues to grow each year: in 2022 over 500 registered activities took place, and bespoke resources were downloaded over 23,000 times.

Kicking off on Earth Day – Saturday 22nd April and concluding on World Bee Day – Saturday 20th May, it is completely free to register and includes access to a vast selection of free resources, toolkits and event planning tips.  

Adam Carter, Senior Programme Manager, Food for Life Get Togethers says: “We couldn’t be more inspired seeing just how many people have come together over the last three years of Plant and Share.

“Whether it’s community groups building urban gardens, schools planting vegetables to incorporate in healthy school meals or people growing something for the first time, it’s been a real joy to help get boots on the ground.

“Launching in 2021 mid-pandemic was challenging, but seeing it evolve from neighbours sharing seedlings over garden walls to entire communities meeting up in the gardens they’ve grown together has been heart-warming – we can’t wait to see what participants get up to this year.”

For additional inspiration, Plant and Share month will have themed weeks to help inspire everyone with the sheer variety of reasons it’s good to grow. The themes are: Growing for All, Growing to Eat, Growing for Joy and Growing for Nature.

Free resources will be released via the newsletter and available on the Food for Life Get Together’s website from 22nd March and will cover activities such as growing fresh herbs to attract pollinators, companion planting beautiful flowers, ‘grow your own soup’, and learning about which plants can attract bug life to the garden. With Plant and Share Month’s fun, engaging and free resources, all of this and more is possible to help people get rooted in nature.

There are plenty of other reasons to celebrate throughout the month too, including the return of Food for Life’s Grandparent Gardening Week, intergenerational activities and the Coronation which will include campaign partner the Eden Project’s Big Lunch, both great opportunities to start growing and sharing skills with friends, family and the whole community.

How can people take part?

People can take part by starting an event either with friends, family or within their local community and registering it on our website, or by joining an existing event in their local area. Reach out to local community groups to see if there’s an event happening nearby, or help to arrange one with them.

If you’re interested in covering an event local to you, please let us know and we can help with finding out event details.

Martin Miller’s Gin: World Bee Week

This May, Martin Miller’s Gin, the world’s most awarded gin brand, proudly partners with leading UK-wide venues and local beekeepers, in a week-long national celebration supporting the  UN’s World Bee Day 2022.  

Martin Miller’s Gin is partnering with Bermondsey Street Bees, Manchester & District Beekeeper’s  Association (MDBKA) and Edinburgh Honey Co. with the mission to raise awareness across the country  of the importance of bee pollinators, particularly in the urban environment.

Key venues including Duchess  of Dalston, Callooh Callay Chelsea and Gold in London, Atlas Bar, Pen & Pencil in Manchester and Pear  Tree, The Raging Bull and OohMami, Edinburgh will partake in this extended initiative – World Bee Week,  16-23 May 2022.  

The week-long celebration by Martin Miller’s Gin will see each partner venue list the Bee’s Knees Cocktail,  made with Martin Miller’s SUMMERFUL Gin. Every serve will be accompanied with an information leaflet  and complimentary thyme seeds for customers to plant at home and encourage their own thriving bee  community. Known to attract all variety of bees, the thyme seeds also provide a much-needed reminder  of the importance of planting, and the role that this plays in allowing bees to thrive within an urban  environment. 

The Bee’s Knees  

The Bee’s Knees is a classic, refreshing summer cocktail, composed of gin, honey and lemon. A gin cocktail  with a twist, the Bee’s Knees is made with Martin Miller’s SUMMERFUL Gin – a fresh variant from the  brand which includes notes of rosemary and thyme, perfectly paired with artisanal raw honey from  Bermondsey Street Bees. The result is a crisp, complex serve offering a herbaceous and citrus finish,  underpinned with cherry-forward notes further heightened by the honey. 

Florencia Orlando, Brand Manager, Martin Miller’s Gin comments: “We had an incredible response to this campaign last year and we’re thrilled to be taking this initiative around the country, for longer!

“The humble  botanical – thyme – is the magic ingredient for both our SUMMERFUL gin and in the mission to save our  bees. We’re delighted reignite our partnership with Bermondsey Street Bees who front the campaign  from London.

“They could not be more aligned with Martin Miller’s Gin in both its quest for high quality  and perfection but also their sustainability values. Incorporating Bermondsey Street Bees honey within our  SUMMERFUL cocktail is a harmonious match and we are looking forward to everyone sampling the serve  this May.” 

Sarah Wyndham-Lewis, Co-Founder, Bermondsey Street Bees comments: “It has never been more  important to support the urban honeybees and their wild bee cousins, and we are delighted to be  partnering with Martin Millers’ Gin and their “World Bee Week” offering to do so.

“We hope through this  partnership Londoners will learn more about these pollinators and indeed will be encouraged to plant  bee friendly seeds. Simply to survive, a single honeybee hive requires around 50kg of pollen and 250 kg  of nectar every year, and this is prior to any surplus honey becoming available for humans to harvest.

They  also need to share this City’s forage resources with the bumblebees, the solitary bee species and other  vital pollinators, so the more green-fingered Londoners, the better!” 

World Bee Day  

This year, The United Nations has selected 20 May 2022 as World Bee Day. Created to draw attention  to the importance of pollinators and sustainable means to support their development, while combatting  the threats the face, World Bee Day aims to educate the public on the importance of bees and the key  role pollinators play in both food supply and biodiversity.  

World Bee Week  

The extended week-long celebration by Martin Miller’s Gin spotlights the importance bees play within our  everyday lives, and how vital it is to take action to protecting this species.

Of the 25,000 species of bees on Earth, only seven are honeybee species, which are the most efficient and successful pollinators, key to  the subsistence of the planet’s ecosystems.

In addition to receiving a packet of thyme seeds with each  Bee’s Knees serve, guests will also be provided with information on key bee conservation charities to  donate to, including British Beekeepers Society and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  

How to make a Bee’s Knees  

Ingredients  

• 50ml Martin Miller’s SUMMERFUL Gin  

• 25ml fresh lemon juice  

• 20ml Bermondsey Street Bees Exmoor Honey  

Method  

• Add the gin, lemon juice and honey to a shaker with some ice (if you don’t have a shaker, a jam  (or honey!) jar will do) 

• Shake until chilled  

• Strain into a cocktail glass  

For further information, please visit www.martinmillersgin.com 

Dobbies hosts bee-rilliant virtual event with Neal’s Yard Remedies to celebrate World Bee Day

Dobbies, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer, is marking World Bee Day (20 May) for Edinburgh customers with a virtual event hosted by natural and organic health and beauty company, Neal’s Yard Remedies.

Following on from the recent launch of their #sustainabledobbies campaign, the experts at Dobbies Garden Centres are teaming up with Neal’s Yard Remedies in this virtual event, to share top tips on making Edinburgh gardens a bee-friendly haven.

Bees are one of the most vital elements of our eco-system, but with several species now in decline, it’s more important than ever that we all play our part to support these precious pollinators, and World Bee Day serves as a timely reminder to celebrate their significance in our daily lives.

The virtual event will start at 7pm on 20 May, and will be hosted by Tipper Lewis, Brand Ambassador for Neal’s Yard Remedies.

Tipper will provide attendees with top tips on the best blooms for bees, and share advice on how to maximise a garden’s ‘pollen power’, so that everyone can play their part in creating a sanctuary for bees in their gardens this summer.

Tipper will also introduce guests to Neal’s Yard Remedies’ Bee Lovely product range, which is lovingly crafted with ingredients such as honey and beeswax. Every purchase from the Bee Lovely collection helps to support bees across the world, with a percentage of each purchase donated to bee-friendly charities. Lucky attendees will also be given the chance to experience the range for themselves too, with the opportunity to win one of five Bee Lovely ‘Head to Toe’ gift sets during the event.

Alongside this, Tipper will be on hand to answer any questions viewers may have, including advice on the best blooms and bushes to plant to attract bees, and how to ensure that gardening techniques are sustainable and bee-friendly at every turn.

Tipper Lewis, Brand Ambassador for Neal’s Yard Remedies, said: “Bees are hugely vital to so many things in our daily lives, from the food we eat to the flowers in our gardens and even the skincare we use.

“The team at Neal’s Yard Remedies and I are very excited to share our knowledge, passion and love for bees of all kinds with Dobbies’ Edinburgh customers, and we hope they’ll enjoy learning more about them as we celebrate World Bee Day.”

The Neal’s Yard Remedies expert event is part of a series of free virtual events that Dobbies is hosting this Spring. Following a successful programme of Facebook Live sessions in 2020, they provide a virtual alternative to regular events usually hosted instore.

Further events have already been announced for the coming weeks, including a virtual event on roses, Britain’s favourite flower, hosted by Dobbies’ Horticulture Director, Marcus Eyles.

Advance booking is essential for the virtual events, which are hosted on Microsoft Teams, making it quick and simple for viewers to log on and join in the event from the comfort of their homes.

The sessions are free of charge and exclusively available to Dobbies Club members. For those who aren’t yet members of Dobbies Club, membership is free and signing up is quick and simple, giving access to a variety of benefits, special offers and exclusive events. To sign up visit dobbies.com

To sign up for the Dobbies virtual event with Neals Yard Remedies, visit https://www.dobbies.com/content/events.html