Congratulations & a big thank you to all our grant-winners on their achievements!
With commitment and passion, they’ve reached out to communities, engaged with children and the public, and increased the vital, nectar-rich natural habitat for our beleaguered bees.
Here’s the latest buzz from our winners:
“Our grant enabled us to purchase educational observation hives, plant bee-friendly gardens and provided us with a training hive and resources to aid teaching trainee beekeepers”. Mark Patterson.
Slough, Windsor & Maidenhead
The new, grant-funded observational hive is used to help train and educate beekeepers.
The Shrill Carder Bee Habitat Project
Gwent Wildlife Trust trained volunteers on bee identification, advised landowners on habitat, and sowed locally-harvested bee-friendly wildflower seeds at 7 sites.
Ground Control at
SHARE Community London
“Turning a weedy patch of ground into a glorious bee-friendly garden of accessible raised beds has been a great opportunity for our students, and they’ve learnt about sustainability and the importance of bees”. Annie McDowall.
Green Lane Herb Link, Totnes
New hives funded by the grant are used in beekeeping training and craft courses at their 'Herbal Healing Garden'.
Durham Wildlife Trust
Over two hundred children have taken part in the Big Buzz Project. “There are so many ways to involve the community, our local Knit & Natter groups knitted little bees for every child who took part”. Kirsty Pollard.
Edible Landscape Movement, Bristol
“We have learned so much since receiving the funding. When we started most of us had a very basic knowledge of bees. It has been a brilliant experience to be able to learn how to keep bees, and to see how much they have benefitted our community gardens”. Gemma Hunt.
Our Bee Lovely Friends
We would also like to give a big thank you to Project Dirt
, the UK's most active green social network, for helping us spread word far and wide about the Bee Lovely Grant. And to our amazing judges who helped us with the very tough process of selecting our winners: John Vidal, Environmental Editor at The Guardian
, Paul de Zylva at Friends of the Earth
, Phil Chandler from Biobees
, Richard Scott at Landlife
and Sophie Maher at Eden Project
. Your help was invaluable and much appreciated.