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Bees Return to Kew

Last week we were at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to witness two colonies, that's 20,000 bees being returned to the gardens. The gardens have had hives for many years but like so many hives across the UK, the bees died out last year. The decline of bee numbers is a very common problem currently and many species of bees appear to be effected. No one really knows why this is happening but it seems 'environmental stress' a combination of factors like climate change are putting bees under pressure. You might have seen the story in the press, if not you can read all about it on BBC online, yahoo, The Guardian, and Sky news.

These new bees at Kew have been reared by local beekeeper Tony Smith and they look fighting fit. Tony is training a number of Kew employees to look after the bees. The hives are situated on an area of wildflowers close to the Main Gate which has been sponsored by Jordans. These flowers are a very similar mixture of the wildflowers our nature-friendly Conservation Grade® farmers grow on their land specifically to give insects like bees enough food to survive, helping combat the effect of 'environmental stress'. If you visit Kew don't forget to have a look at our Bee Discovery Centre in the Climbers & Creepers area, specially set up to help people learn more about why bees are so important.

We launched The Big Buzz because we have been helping bees through nature-friendly farming since the 1980's and wanted to ask everyone to do their bit. As part of The Big Buzz we are giving away free bee-friendly rosemary and lavender plants, click here to find out more.