The Project

The Natural Bee Keeping project being funded by The Green Valleys Community Interest Company has 2 distinct aims:

• For the bees-we are attempting to strengthen the populations of honey bees within the Brecon Beacons National Park area by providing them with secure habitats.Professionally monitored, lightly managed and often isolated from intensively farmed agricultural regions we hope to extend numbers and allow the development of honey bees adapted to modern-day challenges.
• For the community-we hope to raise awareness of the importance of honey bees and other pollinating insects by making them more visible and accessible to the community. We hope to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the work carried out by insects and the contribution they make to our daily lives.

Honey bee foraging on cherry earlier this year.

How it will work

In 2015 we hope to be in a position to offer subsidies to interested parties to keep bees who will be termed 'hosts'. We will initially be looking for sites that can be secure, easily accessible, appealing to bees, and preferably not too far from other hosts. There will be opportunities to join events, meet other bee keepers, attend talks and workshops and generally get to know the gentle, hard working honey bee and her guardians.