Huge boost for the bee population in Norfolk
A local beekeeper has increased the population by thousands
Over 3,000 bees have been added to Norfolk’s Denver Complex, thanks to a local beekeeper.
Ben Di Giulio has been focusing on increasing habitat and biodiversity at the complex:
“I wasn’t seeing very much traffic on the site bee wise, that’s what caught my eye really.”
“I’ve got myself a colony of Norfolk bees, in what they call a ‘nucleus’, which is a very small hive- just a queen and a few worker bees. Then I’ve grown it, I’ve introduced that into what they would called a ‘national hive’ and they’ve just grown and grown from there basically.“
“It’s not something you can just pop into your local pet store and the buy yourself a colony of bees. that was that the mountain to climb really, building my knowledge and then finding out how I go about increasing the bees.”
According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, two species of bumblebees became extinct in the UK during the 20th century: Cullum’s bumblebee and the Short-haired bumblebee. A further eight species (a third of the remaining species) are currently listed on at least one of the English, Welsh and Scottish conservation priority species lists due to their large-scale declines in distribution.
A lot of the decline has happened because of pesticides, drought, habitat destruction, nutrition deficit, air pollution, global warming.
Bees play a critical role in the ecosystem. According to Greenpeace, we have a bee to thank for every one in three bites of food we eat.
Insects are estimated to contribute over £600 million per annum to the UK economy (2015), and in doing so prop up the £108 billion per-year food and drink industry in Britain.
“In general everybody is moving in a good direction with it and becoming more aware of decline in insects, and what we can do about it. Even in the local supermarket theres lots of wildflowers for sale.”
As well as beekeeping, Ben is the Floods and Coastal Risk Management officer, co-managing the Denver complex- which is the Environment Agency’s flagship flood defence.
“I’ve always had a fascination with the bees and beekeepers.
West Norfolk a beekeeping Association has been fantastic. Very forthcoming with knowledge and especially Kevin I’m in a really could’ve done all this without him.
Kevin’s took me under his wing- took me to his apiary, trained me and showed me what I need. Weve kind of gone from there then. “
The complex has also seen a thriving bat population and native water birds have also made a comeback to the area, thanks to the biodiversity and habitat work.