How does Urban Bee Project Australia work and what is it precisely that we do?
Well, we've shared with you the somewhat humorous origin story and our goals and motivation. If you missed out on those stories check out our previous blogs "Why Urban Bee Project Australia" and "My First Hive" to get up to speed.
For our regular readers let’s get on with it and talk about what we do.
I think the first thing we need to make clear is that we are not commercial Beekeepers. We have never been, and this is not our goal. While we may grow in size, our aim is not merely to increase our honey production to sell a product, but rather our first and foremost goal is to improve bee hive numbers and bee health in the growing suburbs. The honey, is in our case, a lovely benefit that happens to come with the job, and when possible, we like to share it with our friends with all proceeds reinvested back into our hives.
So what do we want to do?
Increase beehive numbers, bee population & health in the fast-growing urban environment of our cities.
Help to educate local communities on the importance of bees and how to deal with them.
Encourage others to take an interest in Beekeeping.
Improve the local environment for our bees.
Educate and promote actions that reduce our impact on our local environment.
Go Local.
How do we plan on doing this? Let's break down each of those goals to show you our plan.
Increase beehive numbers, bee population & health in the fast-growing urban environment of our cities.
A disturbing trend, which is noted more in new and developing urban areas of cities is the severe lack of bees or the incredibly low numbers of them. There is no one reason to blame for this, but rather a multitude of issues.
When land is released for new urban development, the first thing that happens is the land is completely cleared. Trees, grasses, wildflowers; they are all removed. If you have ever driven past a new housing estate, you know exactly what we mean. While there are protections for some native and endangered flora, much of the land used is former farmland, which has already been damaged 100 years ago by land clearing. The prevailing attitude is that it's not worth protecting what isn't already there.
So many new developments are devoid of life
Unlike some older neighbourhoods.
Now, we are not against new developments. People need somewhere to live, and many cities are going through growth that many authorities never really anticipated. These new developments also present new opportunities. Think for example of some of the older neighbourhoods in your city. They typically have beautiful gardens filled with flowers, leafy tree-lined streets, and plenty of public park space filled with seasonal plants. Those types of neighbourhoods and developments tend to have better or healthier diversity of both flora and fauna. The wider variety of trees and plants and the additional space makes things a little easier for birds, bees and even the odd possum to get around and make the area their home.
The newer developments seem to fall far short of the developments of the past. Many of them promise to build parks, plant trees and gardens and do their best for the local environment. Unfortunately, history has shown that they almost always stop these efforts when the last block is released and the development is complete. As a result, park space has decreased, the flora is removed, and plants are inevitably destroyed or removed by builders and over-enthusiastic young drivers. Many of our new neighbourhoods look bare, are hot and are just downright miserable, devoid of life.
That is where the bees come in.
The bees' primary job is that of pollination. When they do this, plants produce more seeds, which in turn means more plants. With the addition of bees to an area, one plant becomes many.
Bees also attract other wildlife, like birds. Many birds enjoy having a snack on the odd bee here and there. More birds help to improve the ecosystem. They eat seeds from plants and drop them off as seed bombs to start a new life. Do you see where we are going with this? The simple introduction of a beehive to a neighbourhood, under the right conditions, can significantly improve the overall health and character of the community.
Urban bee hives have the potential to bring so much life to your neighbourhood.
We have created the Bee Host Program which gets beehives into these new developments and helps to care for them. Essentially, a willing Bee Host who lives in the area and who's backyard is suitable to keep bees safely and healthily, signs up to have an Urban Bee Project Australia Hive located on their property. Urban Bee Project Australia then does all the care and maintenance work, ensuring the bees and the Hosts are safe and healthy.
The bees get a new home, the Host's do something good for their environment, and the Urban Bee Project continues with its mission to bringing nature back to the city. As a bonus, it is free for the bee host to participate, and if there happens to bee extra honey, the Hosts get to keep 10% for their family and friends. The rest is sold to be reinvested back into the program. Only if there is honey that is, remember, we're in it for the bees.
Our goal is to ensure most neighbourhoods, if not all have a hive located in them, preferably two.
Would you be interested in being a Bee Host? Want to find out more about how the program works? Send us an email, and we can fill you in on all the details.
Goal one achieved! Well, on its way to being achieved at least. Next goal.
Help to educate local communities on the importance of bees and how to deal with them.
Our next goal or item on our agenda is to help educate our local communities on how important bees are and our interactions with them.
Many people are scared of bees, and if you have ever been stung by one, you probably have an idea why there is a little fear out there. Unfortunately, this has led to a belief that bees anywhere near us are bad and that the sooner we get rid of them, the better. Sadly, some have done horrible things to get rid of bees, and a lot of the time it's merely because many don't understand them.
Bees are our friends and deserve our love.
That is why we are putting in a considerable effort to educate our community about bees, their importance and how to deal with them. We do this through our online engagement.
Currently, Urban Bee Project Australia has an official page on Facebook, and Instagram at @theubpa. We use these two platforms to engage our community with light-hearted educational material to help them learn a little more about bees every week. If you haven't already seen them, go check out our profiles on each platform and LIKE and FOLLOW us. We also use these forums to keep the community updated on honey and other product supplies. Check them out to not miss a thing.
Our final tool on the education front is currently under construction. We are working on getting a YouTube channel up and running. The plan is to have a variety of fun videos teaching people the importance of bees, their environment, our environment and our impact on them. We are also hopeful to have a few tutorials and reviews up for those who want to learn how to bee beekeepers and get an in-depth view of what we do.
You will have to wait for that one for a little while longer and don't worry; we will let you know as soon as the channel is up and ready. Just make sure that you follow us on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date.
We hope that these three online platforms will be the main backbone of our education program, but in the future, we also hope to run face-to-face lessons and tours on Beekeeping. That's once we have grown up a bit more.
Together, we hope these programs will help people be a little less scared of our winged friends, learn how to deal with them when they can't stick around, and what we can do to help them in our little way.
Two goals down and four to go.
You are probably thrilled with excitement for the rest of the story, we know, we're great storytellers. But we also know that it's probably past your bedtime, or your lunch break finished about ten minutes ago.
To save you from a harsh wake-up tomorrow morning or a stern look from your boss who is probably doing the same thing you are, we have split this blog into parts. The next section will be out in a fortnight, from the date of this blog’s publishing. Come back for the rest of the story.
Until then, check out the rest of our website, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and remember…. make friends with a bee. Maybe go out for coffee together, everyone likes coffee.