Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Bees’

Bees – We’ve Done It!

Posted in Biodiversity, tagged , , on 8 July, 2013| Leave a Comment »

bee_hero_panelAll the hard work campaigning around the country has paid off and it’s great news for bees and for us, as the Bee Action Plan has been approved! Here’s the announcement from national FoE:

We’ve done it! Bees Minister Lord de Mauley announced a Bee Action Plan (he called it a National Pollinator Strategy). On behalf of everyone at Friends of the Earth – and every bee in the country – thank you. You’ve done something incredible.
Your emails, phone calls, and petition signatures have made their mark. Over the past week you’ve ramped up the pressure on MPs and our Bees Minister with over 20,000 petition signatures and hundreds of you picking up the phone.  Lord de Mauley acknowledged this, describing the “strength of feeling there is for bees and pollinators. A strength of feeling echoed in thousands of emails, letters and petition signatures over the past months.”
Bees need us almost as much as we need them. And you’ve come to their rescue in their hour of need, persuading the Government to step up.
Announcing a National Pollinator Strategy is an important step in the right direction. Now the hard work starts. It will still take some time for the Government’s bee-saving measures to be finalised. So we will need to keep up the campaign pressure. The detail is everything. Today is a day to celebrate, but we can’t ease off just yet.
The more we can do now, the more we can make sure the National Pollinator Strategy stays on track.

Read more on the Bee Action Plan here.

BEE-INSPIRED MUSIC

The bee campaign has elicited great support from bee-lovers around Brighton and Hove and we thank you for your involvement. Brighton-based musician Tom Sanderson was inspired whilst watching a Bumble bee flying from flower to  flower in his garden, and wanted to try to do something to help the bees. He has written a song  called “Bombus” (Latin from Bumble Bee) and all the profits from the track go to the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust. You can visit his website www.bombusmusic.co.uk  and listen/download the track on itunes.

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Bees World at St. Nicholas Churchyard

Posted in Biodiversity, tagged , , on 30 June, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Friends of the Earth (FoE) has awarded the status of Bee world to SNGSA, the St. Nicholas Garden Spaces Association This is part of FoE’s campaign to seek protection for bees, and increase bees habitats.  BHFoE volunteers joined in with St. Nicholas volunteers, and volunteers from the general public who wanted to be active on Big Dig Day, to plant wild flowers and grasses seeds donated by FoE.
It  had snowed not long before, and it was a miserable March day, with cold rain and wind blowing so strongly that the gazebo and  our publicity leaflets had to be abandoned. But diggers and sowers soldiered on, with the help of local park ranger Mark. For months afterwards, we saw nothing, but now the sun has come out,  and we have a beautiful new flowery meadow corner in the churchyard, along Church street wall.  Bees are living not far, and they will get plenty more pollen to collect, over the months to come as many of the species planted will reappear each year.

Image

The Big Dig in March!

Before...

Before…

After...Bees World early June

After…Bees World early June

Read Full Post »

Join the Buzz – Saturday 4 May, Hassocks

Posted in Biodiversity, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on 26 April, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The ‘Join the Buzz’ bee event is taking place in Hassocks Saturday 4 May – a day of fun and learning to celebrate and save bees! There will be talks, workshops, a Plant Doctor with advice on bee-friendly garden planting, children’s activities and more. Members of Friends of the Earth Brighton & Hove will be there, raising awareness about The Bee Cause.

Come along for a fun family day out to celebrate our beloved bees. Venue: South Downs Nurseries and Garden Centre, Hassocks, 9am-5pm.

For more information see the flyer or visit www.hkdtransition.org.uk

Read Full Post »

Bees Get New Home in Hollingbury Woods

Posted in Biodiversity, Events, tagged , , , , , , on 11 January, 2013| 1 Comment »

BHFOE at bee bankThe creation of a new haven for bees began in January with a lot of hard work by volunteers from Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth (BHFOE) and Friends of Hollingbury and Burstead Woods (FHBW).  Members from both groups lopped, sawed, dug and raked their way through the overgrown south facing bank in Hollingbury Woods to expose bare soil which some solitary bees love.

The site is one of 60 Jubilee ‘Bee Worlds’ springing up around the country as part of Friends of the Earth’s Bee Cause campaign.  The group are calling on the government to take bolder action to protect threatened bees in the UK.  More about the campaign can be found on Friends of the Earth’s website.

Monica Jennings, a member of BHFOE, said:

“We had great fun making this area a place that bees can call home. It may look like just a bare patch of soil but we will be doing more to attract solitary bees which are in decline. If anyone wants to help us please get in touch.”

90% of all bees are solitary and unlike honeybees and bumblebees, don’t live in colonies.  Like these other bees they are also important crop pollinators.  The UK has some 250 species of solitary bee, whereas we have only 24 species of bumblebees and one species of honeybee. Amongst the most common solitary bees in the UK are red mason bees, leafcutter bees and mining bees.

Friends of Hollingbury and Burstead Woods is a group of volunteers who run work sessions once a month to look after these woods close to Fiveways / Ditchling Road.  See their website or Facebook page for more info.

For other info on BHFOE see our Facebook page.

Read Full Post »