Bungay Bee Hive Day is a celebration of the honeybee and other pollinating insects along with the plants they love. Unique in the region and in its second year the event is organised by Bungay Community Bees as part of the Bungay Festival and aims to promote awareness and enjoyment of the essential relationship between people, plants and bees.
After the success of last year’s event which attracted around 1000 people, Bungay Community Bees have invited Heidi Hermann, Founder Trustee of the Natural Beekeeping Trust, to talk about swarming – perhaps the most exhilarating event of a honeybee colony’s annual lifecycle. The Natural Beekeeping Trust was formed in response to the critical situation of the honeybee which has led many beekeepers to question approaches to beekeeping that rely on chemical inputs and to seek to improve the wider landscape in which bees live.
Co-Founder of Bungay Community Bees Elinor McDowall said: ‘We’re very lucky to have Heidi Hermann joining us on the 15th. It’s the first time she’s spoken in East Anglia and this is a great opportunity for local beekeepers and those interested in bees to come and hear about this growing new holistic take on bee husbandry’.
Building on the theme of this year’s Bee Hive Day, Rose Titchiner of Bungay Community Bees will explain how we can provide year-round plants and habitats for bees, pollinators and wildlife . She’ll introduce Bungay Community Bees’ Get your Garden Buzzing project – a bee-friendly plant labelling scheme that can be used by any garden centre. Meanwhile there will be a Bee and Flower Walk around Bungay’s diverse green spaces, local author Charlotte Du Cann reading from her latest book 52 Flowers That Shook My World, a screening of the highly acclaimed film Queen of the Sun and a panel discussion. Waveney Beekeeping Group and Bungay Community Bees will display hives, equipment and information to show how honeybees work and how they can be supported by beekeepers.
Information stalls and displays covering all aspects of beekeeping and pollinators will be complemented by those selling bee-friendly plants, seeds, bee-related crafts and of course honey! There will be an activities area where children and adults can make their own bug hotels, beeswax lip balm or get their faces painted and a quiet reading corner stocked with bee books and magazines. Bungay Community Kitchen will provide refreshments.
You can download a .pdf of our press release here
You’ll find a .pdf of our programme and details of all our speakers here
In the Marquee
10:30: Welcome to Bee Hive Day
10:45: Elinor McDowall of Bungay Community Bees will talk about the challenges facing bees and pollinators of all kinds and the work of Bungay Community Bees
11:30: Heidi Hermann, Founder Trustee of the Natural Beekeeping Trust will give an inspirational talk about swarming, highlighting aspects and dispelling myths about this most exhilarating event of a honeybee colony’s annual lifecycle
12:15: Join the Neal’s Yard remedies team, who will be demonstrating how to make an organic bees wax lip balm – join them and take some lip balm home with you
1:20: Rose Titchiner talks about how we can provide year-round Plants and Habitats for Bees, Pollinators and Wildlife and Bungay Community Bees’ Get Your Garden Buzzing project
2:00: Author Charlotte Du Cann talks about wild flowers and their relationship with bees, with excerpts from her new book 52 Flowers That Shook My World – A Radical Return to Earth
Around the Town
12:15: Starting at the marquee, join Mark Watson on a Bee & Flower Walk around Bungay’s diverse green spaces as Plants for Life meets Bungay Community Bees
In the Cinema tent
2:40: Film Screening: Queen of the Sun What Are the Bees Telling Us? A profound, alternative look at the global bee crisis. Taking a journey through the catastrophic disappearance of bees and the mysterious world of the beehive, the film weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heartfelt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world including Michael Pollan, Gunther Hauk and Vandana Shiva. Together they reveal both the problems and the solutions in renewing a culture in balance with nature. Followed by a panel discussion with Bungay Community Bees, Heidi Hermann of the Natural Beekeeping Trust
Throughout the day
Adults and children will be able to take part in bee crafts including candle making and building bug hotels. Our Reading Corner will be a quiet space full of bee books and magazines. There will be stalls selling plants for pollinator gardens and bee related art, the Waveney Beekeepers Group will bring information, honey and an observation hive whilst the Iceni Microscopy Group will be looking at bees in detail. Bungay Community Bees will bring displays of hives and beekeeping equipment, images and information about the beekeeping year. Refreshments will be provided by Bungay Community Kitchen
From Bungay in Suffolk in the UK. We wanted to say we hope that the Bungay Bee Hive Day goes well.
This looks really well organised, interesting and good for children as well as adults. I’m very much looking forward to it.
Hi Rory and Tania – thanks for your comments; it should be a great day!
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Hi Bungay Community Bees. I learnt a lot at the day and having come to see if I could help, I ended up being engrossed in the talks and chats with stall holders. I learnt that bees colonies go for a single flower at a time- that right? That swarming is an important part of a healthy genetic cycle. That conventional bee keeping involves some sweemish exploitation of the bees, That the natural beekeeping trust is doing cool things but they may do it all only to take honey if there is a surplus so perhaps out of the question if you want to profit from honey production. Also more info about the problems facing bees and that maybe its time to give the bees as natural a time, let them eat their own honey over winter, naturally shaped hives at 6 feet minimum to mimic natural habitats. Then maybe they can overcome diseases, adapt to overcome mites etc. Heidi Hermann was a great speaker and I counted about 100 people listing to her, she said that swarms are marvellous and the beed are very docile so its ok to enjoy the experience without panic. Urban swarming can be a nuisance some people say and she suggested that an examples is needed of a town willing to do everything for bees. e.g. fitting chimney meshes. Finally a film called Queen of the Sun showed a upbeat solution based approach to the dramatic problems the bees face. Copies can be got from the biodynamic Association UK – lok them up. Thanks again Bungay Folk.