urban bees
London
Urban Bees helps bees in towns and cities by working with communities, charities
and corporates to educate people about the importance of bees and improving
forage and habitat in urban areas. We provide ‘bee makeovers’; practical steps
for transforming our environment and our thinking to help bees and other
pollinators – from planting trees and flowers that offer year-round food, to
making and installing homes for wild bees. Urban Bees was set up a few years ago
by Brian McCallum and Alison Benjamin. They wanted to share their passion for
their new beekeeping hobby with other city dwellers and to make the urban
environment more bee-friendly. Their first training apiary was in Battersea,
south London. With funding from the Co-op Plan Bee, they set up a teaching
apiary in Camley Street Nature Reserve in King’s Cross and a community apiary in
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. They now produce Regents Park honey from their
apiary in the royal park, maintain hives and bee-friendly planters for a number
of corporate clients, and advise and educate through books, newsletters, talks
and consultancy about how to help wild bees. ""Brian McCallum Brian runs Urban
Bees. He is a qualified teacher and worked for nine years as a part-time
seasonal bee inspector for the government. He is a member of the Bee Farmer’s
Association and the co-author of four books on bees, Keeping Bees and Making
Honey, A World without Bees, Bees in the City, and The Good Bee: A Celebration
of Bees and How to Save Them. Brian provides 'meet the bees' sessions for a
number of corporate clients and other organisations. He created the 'hive
talking' bee map to match existing and aspiring beekeepers and people who want
to host hives. He educates children, young people and adults about bees, writes
blogs. He tweets @Beesinthecity. Alison Benjamin Alison co-founded Urban Bees.
She is a journalist, author, educator and bee-friendly plant expert. She
co-authored Keeping Bees and Making Honey, A World without Bees, Bees in the
City, an urban beekeepers’ handbook; and The Good Bee: A Celebration of Bees and
How to Save Them. She was part of the team that designed the award-winning
King’s Cross Bee Trail App. And she created a solitary bee garden at the 2018
RHS Chelsea Flower Show with River of Flowers which won a silver medal. After a
20 year career at The Guardian, Alison is now pursuing her passion for wild
bees, by doing bee makeovers, creating and maintaining bee-friendly planters,
writing newsletters, giving talks and developing partnerships to improve forage
and habitat for bees and pollinators in towns and cities.
