- Create a Bee hotel or a Bee & Bee and provide a safe haven for bees. Sign up and you will receive your guide on creating your very own bee habitat.
- Choose local honey to support our honey bees and their keepers. It is also a great way to support local businesses. Buy local bee products such as; honey, beeswax candles and polish and health and beauty products. Local suppliers include Beez Neez Honey which is available at Kings Norton and Kings Heath farmers markets.
- Plant bee friendly flowers, herbs and trees. The key is to use plants where the pollen is easy for bees to reach. Some examples include; chives, sage, thyme, lavender, snowdrop, strawberries, tomatoes and foxglove.
- Encourage other people to get involved and do some bee friendly planting. It can even be done at work as many office spaces have garden areas or planters.
- Sign up to take part in the Great British Bee Count to monitor our bee population.
- Ask your local MP to support the ban on bee harming pesticides and encourage your local council to make the local area more bee friendly.
- Plant wildflowers and other pollinator-friendly plants in your garden, window boxes and balconies. Wildflowers are especially rich in the nutritious nectar that pollinators feed upon. Look for plants on the RHS-Perfect for Pollinators list of plants to grow by season.
- Become a beekeeper – The British Beekeepers’ Association estimates that over 90 per cent of the UK’s honeybee population is thanks to the efforts of 17,000 amateur beekeepers. Why not help boost the dwindling numbers and join them? You don’t need a lot of space, you don’t even need a garden – you can keep a bee hive on a balcony! See the Ecologist’s Guide to becoming an Urban Beekeeper.
- Buy organic – insecticides and pesticides are harmful chemicals for wildlife, particularly insects such as bees. Research has shown that pesticides, (neonicotinoids in particular) are extremely harmful to bees, interfering with their ability to navigate their way home after foraging trips and produce queens in their nests. By buying organic foods you avoid supporting the use of these harmful substances.
0121 632 6909
info@birminghamfoe.org.uk
