HIVE MIND WITH PURE BUZZIN'

Consisting of eight individual hives and colonies, each with their own queen, Pure Buzzin’ offer community programs to teach people about honeybees and beekeeping, utilising their apiary as a source of connecting with the community on a direct level to reduce social isolation, to promote inclusion and to increase mental health and well-being. Built from wood, each hive features several vertical hanging frames, designed for the honeybee colonies to build their combs with ease.

Boasting up to sixty thousand individuals, each colony operates and functions as a singular unit widely known as a “superorganism”, collecting nectar from flowers to turn into honey – the honeybees’ primary source of food and energy. Through this continual movement – from flower to flower – the honeybees pick up pollen and drop it off at the next flower, carrying out the important act of pollination. Enacting this vital process, honeybees – and other pollinators – ensure that flowers and plants can produce fruit and seed, enabling the growth and sustainability of key habitats and crop harvests.

With honeybee populations declining on a global scale because of habitat loss, neglectful farming practices, mono-cropping, harmful agricultural chemicals, and climate change – a third of the United Kingdom’s honeybee population has disappeared in the last ten years - it is important to reassess the way we live and offer an alternative to help important creatures such as pollinators. Here are some simple ways you can help:

- Plant a variety of flowers in your garden to promote biodiversity.

- Re-wild a section of your garden to allow native plant species to return.

- Create an "insect hotel" out of twigs, sticks and twine to provide habitats.

- Avoid monocultures, such as pristinely kept lawns, asphalt or patios. 

- If you don't have a garden, leave a small tub filled with soil outside to offer space for seeds to grow.

Pure Buzzin' is a community interest company established by Stephen Douglas in 2020.