Honeybees are responsible for pollinating over 30% of the food we eat in the UK. So, they’re pretty essential!
We’re creating a buzz. We need bees and at the moment bees need us – and you. Since the 1970s, Britain’s bee population has plummeted by 60%. For the past four years, the hum in the countryside has been getting quieter and quieter. So, we’re going to make a ruckus, and we’d love for you to join us.
Wednesday 9th June is the date. We’ve managed to get a fantastic venue – the View at Battersea Power Station. It has fantastic views over the Thames and the link to a power station is extremely relevant as bees power the countryside. They pollinate billions of pounds worth of crops each year.
Without bees, we’d all have to go out with feather dusters, individually applying pollen to the tiny stigmas in spring flowers. And, we’d be nowhere as fast as the bees. A single colony of bees can visit up to three million flowers in a day.
The idea of having to pollinate flowers yourself may sound mad but sadly China’s bee populations have dropped so much that this is exactly what they’re having to do. Some have been at it for 20 years.
We don’t want it to come to that here. So, we’re pulling our socks up, putting our wellington boots over them and getting out into the countryside, planting flowers and setting up hives. We’ve befriended bee expert Steve Benbow of The London Honey Company and he’s going to show us exactly how we can get ourselves out of this sticky situation we have with bees.
If you like your honey and don’t fancy spending your weekend pollinating flowers, come and join us. With challenges like this, the answers are often quite simple.. And, this one certainly is. Let’s get Britain buzzing again. There will certainly be a buzz at Battersea Power Station on the evening of 9th June. Call us on 08452 62 62 62 or see here for tickets – to sweeten you up, we’ll have pots of honey, plenty of good things to drink and honeyed nibbles to eat.
And, if you can’t make it… we’ll be doing loads of activity on our website and we’ll soon have jars of Steve’s English honey for you to buy.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
09 May 2010 at 21:04
would love to come and support Abel and Cole, in your good work, but stuck at work!!!!! arh! we have planted aload plants in the garden to help get bees in our garden, as they are so important.
it was great seeing some the team at the real food festival today,
best wishes
iain and sharon
10 May 2010 at 11:25
will support you if I can get the day off work.
nearly half of my garden is dedicated to bees
10 May 2010 at 13:28
We would love to attend this event. Its great to see people interested and also playing an active part in helping our bees! I have just finished my bee keeping course with the national trust in Wiltshire. I think more people should learn how to keep bee’s, its fascinating. And you can keep bees even if you live in a city. Book yourself on a course!
11 May 2010 at 11:02
Hello Jenny and Iain…not sure if we made it clear here but it’s an evening event. Though perhaps you’re having to travel over! It starts at 6:30pm, talks start at 7:30pm, and we’ll wrap up at 10:00pm. You can buy your tickets here – http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/bigbuzz
13 May 2010 at 23:23
Have been gardening for quite a long time now, but to try to help the bees, have only changed to single flowers rather than doubles in the last four years. Double flowers have all the vital parts sacrificed in the the drive for beauty. So no pollen. I also (sorry Abel and Cole) try to grow as much of my own veg as possible, without insecticides etc. Bees are vitally important to all veg and fruit, imagine trying to pollinate an apple tree! The bumble bee seems to be surviving as I have seen them frequently, despite the fact that I am surrounded by farmland, which does unfortunately use insecticide. The honey bee usually appears much later than the bumble bee, and due to the cold spring will be later still this year, if at all. Keep up the good work. Plants for bees all the year round if possible.
14 May 2010 at 18:15
What a shame! I would have loved to come to this event with my partner, had it cost a reasonable amount, ie. around £5-£10. I’m passionate about saving bees and this would be a marvelous opportunity to raise awareness had it been made accessible to all, rather than just the elite – who probably already keep bees and know about the problem! Perhaps if a more modest venue was chosen, more people would be welcome. Disappointing…
17 May 2010 at 11:17
Hello Caroline…We’re very sorry to hear you feel this way. We had researched what people would deem acceptable, and thought this was a fair price given that all drinks and canapés are included, along with the evening’s activities, and a donation to the West Wales Bee Breeding Program. Also, Abel & Cole are subsidizing this event heavily because we are passionate about raising awareness about bees. We’re very sorry that you feel the ticket price is excessive and hope that you can join us at another event in the future.
18 May 2010 at 14:08
Sorry you have changed your soup supplier. We were looking forward to the Beetroot one
again. We’ll try them but tinned soup is usually too salty.
20 May 2010 at 14:54
This is great, well done Abel&Cole, I look forward to the evening and look forward to meeting up with other beekeepers (especially other beginners!)
James
http://www.surreybeekeeper.co.uk
29 May 2010 at 14:34
Alas! At 88yrs.too old to travel to Bee Day. In our garden we keep lots of wild flowers and single flowers plus buddelias and others frequented by bees. Plenty of bumble but I saw one honey bee yesterday.I admire all your efforts towards organic and free trade produce.
29 May 2010 at 23:33
Bit far to travel from Bristol, so thought I would share our good news. At 11 am Wednesday 12th May this year, a swarm of honey bees arrived in our small city garden to take up residence again in an old composting barrel. A swarm of bees originally took up residence in this barrel 3 years ago, but disappeared during last winter, so we were absolutely delighted when the bees returned. We extracted some of the honey during the winter, and the bees are feeding off the rest of it. The City Council is aware of their existence. I am sure your event will be successful and inspiring.
01 Jun 2010 at 10:39
Oh it sounds like a great event, but it’s just a bit too far for me to get to, what with beeing in the North of England. But I do have an underground nest of bees in my garden but don’t know what I should be doing (if anything) about them. Any suggestions?
01 Jun 2010 at 13:40
Would love to have come, but it’s a bit far for us, however everybody can still do their bit at home ,making sure that their gardens are full of wild flowers and beneficial herbs/flowers, my garden is also dedicated to wildlife, bees are fantastic!!!!
07 Jun 2010 at 14:36
Haven’t had time read any of the above tut tut so this info may be already there:- Living Earth issue 240 summer 2010 talks about neonicotinoid pesticides in domestic garden products and tables a selection commonly used and this being probable cause – check your products you might not know you are using this pesticide.
07 Jun 2010 at 14:38
Again you may already have this link – Sign their campaign.
http://www.soilassociation.org/News/NewsItem/tabid/91/smid/463/ArticleID/76/reftab/57/Default.aspx
09 Jun 2010 at 13:59
Hope this goes well today, we too try to encourage bees to the garden. I get passionate about people swatting them and keep telling them that bees do not sting as a rule, it’s wasps and hornets that do that but some people will not listen.
I look forward to hearing how this goes and to seeing this honey available to buy, I love honey.
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