Plan Bee

The buzzing of bees, part of the essence of rural life, may soon become a city sound. A new army of urban beekeepers is being recruited as part of an ambitious project to halt the worrying decline in British honeybees.

The plan is to site hives in city gardens and allotments across the UK, and even on the roofs of buildings, to help rebuild honeybee numbers, which are believed to have halved in Britain between 1985 and 2005, and more recently to have declined even more steeply in some areas. The reasons are not clear, but it may be a combination of pesticide use, warmer winters because of climate change and infections such as that caused by the varroa mite. Honeybees in

Britain produce 5,000 tonnes of honey a year and their pollination of fruit trees and other crops are estimated to be worth £165m annually. This spring, the Co-operative Group is trying to draw 300 new people to urban beekeeping in Manchester, London and Inverness by offering free training and equipment – from gloves and overalls to a hive.

To register your interest and to find out more visit http://www.co-operative.coop/ethicsinaction/takeaction/planbee/

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Offshoots Permaculture Project, which is part of the Target: Wellbeing portfolio has a bee keeping course running over 6 Saturdays, beginning May 15th. To find out more info please download Offshoots 2010 Training Leaflet.PDF, or go to http://www.offshoots.org.uk.

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Bee keeping courses are also available at Heaton Park in North Manchester: http://www.heatonpark.org.uk/HeatonPark/Community_Groups/Manchester_Beek...