Campaign news and updates

SOS for Honey Bees Spring Update
Bee on flower
Many people will have seen honey bees out and about over recent weeks, with the spring flowers providing the first nectar of the season.
You can read about how our resident WI bee blogger Martha Kearney’s bees survived the winter, as well as the trials and tribulations of beekeeping by visiting her bee blog here.
Latest on the pollinator research projects
How do pollinators fare in urban environments? How do bees fight viruses? Are declines in wildflowers and pollinators linked? Do pesticides and chemicals affect bee behaviour?
The answers to these questions will hopefully provide a real insight into the challenges facing our honey bees for the future. All these topics and many more are being researched through the Insect Pollinators Initiative, and thanks to WI members, honey bees feature prominently in the research.
The Wellcome Trust, one of the funders of the research, has published two articles that give a real insight into the issues being investigated and include interviews with lead researchers on the projects. You can read them online here:
Part 1: Bees and Ecology
Part 2: Bees and Disease
Send in your SOS for Honey Bees campaign tales
The Public Affairs Team is currently collating reports and photographs of the SOS for Honey Bees campaign to highlight  the huge success of the campaign. Please do send photos and write ups of your campaign events so that we can feature them in campaign legacy documents and on the website.
Funding for Pollinators Research Announced
After months of pressure by WI members, the beekeeping community and campaigners, the Government has announced the projects that will receive £10million of funding towards researching pollinator health. This is a great first success for our campaign, as there are two projects exclusively related to honey bees, and they feature in six more of the nine projects. Thanks to the grant, research will now be carried out into issues like bee diseases, the effect of mite control chemicals and pesticides on honey bee learning, and the varroa mite. Honey bees also feature in projects to look at crop pollination in the UK, possible links between wildflower and pollinator decline, pollinators in urban areas and bee nutrition. This is great news—and we hope the research will shed some light on the threat to these vital insects.

Find out more information about the research awards on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council website.

Bee Ambassadors' Conference 2010
On 29th March 2010, WI members from around the country came together in Denman College to learn more about the honeybee and what is being done to ensure its survival. The day had a great line-up of speakers from academia, the Government and the beekeeping community, and was sponsored by the UK's largest honey company, Rowse. You can read a full report of the day here and the event even got a write up in the Daily Mirror, which you can see below.
Bee Aware Action Week 2009
WIs up and down the country took part in our Bee Aware Action Week running from 24th until 30th October. Below is a selection of photos from those events, which give a flavour of the way in which WI members have been raising awareness in their local area.
Go along to the National Trust’s A Plant in Time exhibition and join the flower festival with a difference!
Creativity, passion for plants and environmental awareness come together in the National Trust’s exciting new exhibition for 2010. Supported by Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks, A Plant in Time offers every visitor the chance to make their own unique contribution in the shape of a hand-made flower which will be added to the exhibition as it tours Trust gardens across the country – eventually creating what could be the largest collection of hand-made flowers ever seen. A Plant in Time celebrates the National Trust’s vast collections of garden plants and marks the end of the first phase of an ambitious project to catalogue all the important plants in Trust gardens – the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in the UK. For more information about the events taking place near you, please visit the National Trust website:http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-events/w-a-plant-in-time.htm
Calling all beekeepers – sign up to BeeBase
Once you have your first hive you can register on the National Bee Unit's (NBU) BeeBase database. The NBU uses this database to help monitor bee populations and levels of disease, and provides advice on identifying pests and diseases. They will also advise on the legal requirements for beekeepers. Registered beekeepers get a free advisory apiary visit from their local bee inspector, who can provide help and advice on all aspects of beekeeping. You can register on the BeeBase website www.nationalbeeunit.com or call 01904 462510.