We’re buzzing with eggcitement to have partnered with The British Bee Charity!
There are over 250 species of bees in the UK, and the honey bee is just one of them. It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of pollinators in our ecosystem – the survival of plants depend on it – and the honey bee accounts for 80% of all pollination done by insects. Unfortunately the numbers of many of our bee species are in decline, and some have even become extinct. There are several possible reasons for this, but it’s an astonishing fact that in England over 97% of all flower-rich grasslands have been lost since the 1930s – that’s three million hectares, or an area one and a half times the size of Wales.
Beekeeping has become vital in an effort to reestablish lost colonies of bees and offset the decrease in pollination by wild bees.
Founded in 2017, The British Bee Charity is a non-profit charity with no paid members – all of their funds go directly towards the welfare of bees.
The charity is brimming with exciting initiatives, including ‘Beekeeper Free Taster Sessions’ and their ‘Adopt a Hive’ scheme.
Much of the charities work involves educating young people in schools through talks and educational visits.
‘Bees4Schools’ is an example of another British Bee Charity initiative designed to educate our young people. Schools which have a secure, safe area to locate a working hive can move the classroom outside. This enables children to understand the inner workings of a hive, honey production, how bees live, their lifecycle and the modern environmental factors that affect them. Successful applicants will receive a 100% grant and applications are open to all UK schools.
Yet another brilliant British Bee Charity initiative is ‘BeeBombs4Schools’. The scheme is open to all junior schools in the UK and is free. The British Bee Charity sends participating schools an educational pack, together with BeeBombs which are native, wildflower seedballs, handmade in Dorset. The educational pack includes a powerpoint presentation with teacher notes. The presentation explains to children the plight of bees and other pollinators and how we can each do our bit to help them, like planting pollinator friendly flowers.
Through this partnership, Incredible Eggs is funding the production of enough ‘BeeBombs4Schools’ packs for an extra ten UK schools to participate for free!
Teachers can apply for one here.
It’s thanks to all those who book our hatching kits that it’s possible for us to do this, so thank you for helping us to help this fabulous charity, participating schools – and most importantly, our brilliant bees!
