When you’re making a list (and checking it twice) this festive season, don’t forget the bees!
You’ll find some brilliant eco-friendly presents that benefit buzzing buddies in your backyard and all over the world.
If you’d like to attract bees to your back garden, investing in a bee house is a great start. The Bees for Development Bee House is a habitat box for honey bees that replicates a hollow tree and provides the right-sized cavity for a honey bee colony to build its nest and live naturally.
Beehouse for wild honeybees in your garden
Not all bees live in a colony. Some prefer the solo life and a solitary beehive can offer them refuge after a busy day of pollination. The hole sizes of this habitat are precisely specified to attract non-swarming bees like the Red Mason Bee, Leafcutter Bee and other solitary bees. These friendly bees are industrious and safe around children and pets.
A hive for solitary bees
If you’re crafty, perhaps you’d like to try your hand at building a bee hotel? Sometimes bees need a short rest before returning to the hive, and this allows them to do it in style, out of the elements and the view of potential predators.
Build your own bee hotel
One of the biggest threats facing our bee population is loss of habitat. The Bee’s Knees Mix contains a variety of 26 wildflower species, 24 of which are on the RHS Plants for Pollinators list and have been expertly selected for their wildlife attracting ability and their colour. There’s enough seed to cover 2 square meters of land with bee-friendly flowers.
A seed bomb of bee-friendly flowers
If you spot an exhausted bee, the best course of action is to move it to one of their favourite flowers. If that’s not an option, it can be handy to have a bottle of revival elixir on hand. It gives bees that essential sugary boost and includes added botanicals used by beekeepers to maintain a healthy hive.
Revival elixir for bumblebees
If your garden isn’t a haven for wildlife, there’s still a chance to help out bees in the UK. The Scottish Bee Company needs sponsors for their brood boxes, where baby bees are born. They’ll send you updates of your brood throughout the year so you can watch them grow from egg to larva, to fully-fledged worker bee. You’ll also get a chance to sample their delicious honey and make a donation to a Scottish bee charity.
Sponsor a brood box (home for baby bees)
There are hives in need of sponsorship all over the world. Your money can help protect valuable flower meadows and encourage families in the developing world to become beekeepers.
A hive in the UK
A beehive in Africa
https://www.treeaid.org/all-gifts/modern-beehive/