Thanks to generous donations to the Lake District Foundation, we made grant to the Community Bee Hide Project in Kendal in December 2019. We got in touch with the Bee Team to find out how they are doing and how the Coronavirus Pandemic has impacted their plans.
“As you can imagine, Covid has unfortunately put the lid on many of our community plans for this year. However, the ‘Bee Hide’ is almost finished, only the internals to finish including the installation of an exciting ‘observation’ hive, which will enable our community visitors a view of the bees all year round.
We have installed a ‘Bee Bed’ an accessible raised bed planted up with bee & pollinator friendly plants, along with a large information ID board, we hope to teach children, young people and members of the community about ‘what bees need’ and how they can engage in wildlife by planting for bees & other pollinators. Covid allowing, we will be running this out for community groups next year.
This year, as so many of our youngsters have missed out on their beekeeping, we have run several ‘Bee Summer School’ sessions which have been oversubscribed and a huge success! The children have learnt not just about honeybees and beekeeping, but solitary bees, their habitats, nesting habits and what they can do at home to help provide habitat & forage for them. These sessions really came to life as we have a ‘solitary bee village’ a collection of various nesting boxes for bees, many with observation panels, so the children and visitors can see exactly how these amazing bees create their nests!
Our large plot of wildflowers planted by the children has been a huge success this year, so it is sad we have not had many visitors with Covid restrictions. But the bees and wildlife have loved it and it has been an incredible teaching resource for us.
We rare so grateful for the grant which has enabled us to deliver the apiary & Bee Hide. It has been an amazing project see develop and even with the unprecendented restrictions in place, it is already proving a huge success! Broadening the knowledge, enthusing and developing beekeeping skills of not only our young people, but the many visitors to the apiary.
Thank you so much for your support and sharing our vision for the apiary as a community resource.”
To ensure that more projects like this can continue, please DONATE to the Lake District Foundation, your support really does make a difference.