Bee Squared Project

The Town Council's Climate Change Working Group "BEE SQUARED" project is quickly moving towards the final stage. This exciting project is designed to help our bees and other pollinators which have massively declined over the past 50 years.

In the UK alone, there are 267 species of bee. Over 90% of them are not social and do not live in colonies — these are solitary bees. Solitary bees vary considerably in size, appearance, and where they choose to nest. Roughly 70% are called mining bees and nest in underground burrows. Bees that nest in houses are called cavity-nesting bees. Solitary bees do not live in colonies, produce honey, or have a queen. While honey bees use wax to construct the cells inside their nest, different species of solitary bees use all sorts of materials to make their homes – for example, leaf-cutter bees use tiny leaf pieces within their nests, which might be in a hollow plant stem, dead wood or a crack in a weathered wall. They don't have pollen baskets for carrying pollen, meaning that each time they visit a flower they lose far more pollen than social bees. This makes them much better pollinators: a single red mason bee is equivalent to 120 worker honey bees in the pollination services it provides. As they do not return to a hive, they need to 'refuel' via flowers every few metres.

The Higham Ferrers "Bee Squared" Project will specifically help solitary bees refuel by giving them plenty of refuelling stops as they busily travel through the gardens of the town. The Town Council is giving every primary school pupil a cornflower mixture pack which consists of Corncockle, Cornflower, Corn Chamomile, Corn Marigold, and Common Poppy and instructions on how to sow the seeds in late March. So, watch out for the profusion of colour in the Town's gardens and flower pots in the early summer.

The "Bee Squared" project is one of many projects that the Town Council is developing to maintain and enhance biodiversity and green spaces so that all can enjoy them, whether they are a resident or a visitor to our lovely town.

Cllr Gerald Kelly

Vice Chair - Environment and Recreation Committee

Chair - Climate Change Working Group

Contact: info@highamferres-tc.gov.uk or 01933 312075.