Bees & Seas is a local project born from our common passion for ‘wildlife’ and ‘connecting communities’ with nature across land and sea. Friends of Brooklands Park have come together with the Pollinator Pioneers, combining expertise to create a community beekeeping project, pollination hub and educational training space in the heart of Brooklands Park.
In 2020, Adur and Worthing council generously awarded us a disused urban council yard, that sits outside the local council’s Brooklands master plan. And we have worked hard to transform it, these last few years.
The Mission is to help educate and engage the local community with nature, and pollinators through a series of events and workshops that cater to the evolving needs of the local environment around us. Our project goals:
• Transform a degraded industrial site into a local ecological and natural asset
• Connect people through community programmes and volunteering opportunities
• Inspire mind-set change to value pollinators, green space and the role of the humble bee in building environmental resilience
Our main business sponsor, the wonderful ‘Sussex Transport’ gifted two large shipping containers, one for apiary storage and one for use as a teaching classroom. The fabulous Creative Waves team designed and painted the site to bring ‘Bee World’ to life. ‘Friends of Brooklands Park’ volunteers have made great progress re-wilding the land, building wooden planters and planting to expand the green space.
Our pollinator hub was officially launched in summer 2021 with a three-day event and the culmination of our first junior beekeeping course!
There are big plans afoot for Apiary expansion, green roofs, fruit trees, hedgerows and pollinator forage, throughout phase two. We currently have two healthy and thriving honeybee hives: Queen Luna and Queen Honeybun, aptly named by local school children.
We feel very passionately about inspiring the local community to learn more about pollinating insects. We work with local schools, colleges, community groups, local business and residents. Please do get in touch with us if this is of interest to you.