Life is sweet for honey bees on these holiday parks
At Castlerigg Hall holiday park in Cumbria (above), wild flowers flourish thanks to regular seed sowings
2018 IS THE FOURTH year of the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme’s (DBCAS) Honey Bee Friendly Park Project. This is an on-going partnership with the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA). The project aims to get as many camping, caravanning and holiday home parks as possible working to help Britain’s bees.
Last year, over 470 parks took the Honey Bee Friendly Pledge and have committed to doing what they can to provide the forage plants that bees need, to provide homes for bees, and to spread the word about bee conservation. Over 360 did enough for their David Bellamy assessors to designate them as Honey Bee Friendly.
As part of the partnership, the BBKA helped parks get free wildflower seeds from the cosmetics company Burt’s Bees. Over 230 packets of seeds have been sent out so far, and parks have been planting them up to create new wildflower meadows and wildflower patches for bees and other pollinators to enjoy. For example, at Castlerigg Hall in the Lake District, the park team has been busy sowing many areas with the seeds as part of its Bee Friendly work.
Alongside this exciting planting work, many parks have been getting busy learning about beekeeping, working with their local beekeepers and have even becoming beekeepers themselves. For example, at Lickhill Manor Caravan Park in Worcestershire, they have installed two bee hives and have just harvested their second batch of honey. “The bees have been a pleasure to watch and interact with,” says park manager Anita. “Lots of our customers have enjoyed them too.”
To show your support of what the parks are doing, why not choose a Honey Bee Friendly Park when you next venture out into the British countryside? Look out for the Honey Bee Pledge Logo and Honey-Bee Friendly Certificate when you visit. For more information on the DBCAS see www.bellamyparks.co.uk For more information on the BBKA see https://www.bbka.org.uk
Two bee hives at Lickhill Manor Caravan Park in Worcestershire are producing delicious honey
Seeking inspiration for new ways in which your park can help protect the natural world? In these articles, Rufus Bellamy, head of the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme, highlights some of the latest initiatives being taken. For more ideas, visit http://stayuknews.co.uk/conservation/
