You may have heard about the serious threat to pollinators and bees in the media. Did you know one out of every three mouthfuls of our food depends on pollination? Or that in one worker bee’s lifetime, she’ll produce just 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey?

The Worthing Honey Collective, Worthing’s first community-supported beehive and pollination programme was set up in 2019 in response to the growing pollinator crisis. We developed our main teaching apiary at Worthing Leisure Centre with four goals in mind:

• to increase vital pollinators in our neighbourhood
• to set up and train local people to maintain beehives across Worthing
• to educate people of all ages in the local community on the vital role of the bee
• to increasingly provide forage and support for bees

Our team consists of 16 dedicated volunteer beekeepers (and growing), one very experienced master beekeeper and an apiarist project manager. In autumn we sell honey, comb, ‘Meet The Bee’ vouchers and a variety of other honey related products to raise money for our growing colonies. As a CIC, we exist purely to benefit the local environment, with all profits invested directly back into the community.

We are committed in putting Worthing on the map as a place where pollinators in the community matter. Since 2019, we have sourced new apiary’s, ran a variety of workshops and ‘coloured up’ the apiary in collaboration with local schools; building bug hotels, and seed bombing to create pollinator forage.

None of this would have been possible without funding and support from our partners including Rampion Wind Farm, South Downs Leisure, Worthing Community Chest, West Sussex County Council and the Town Centre Initiative. We are also eternally gratefully for the continued huge wave of support from the local community.

Do get in touch if you feel inspired to become a trainee beekeeper in the future. Perhaps you would like to volunteer on ‘wild pioneering’ days, or help us with promotion at local events? We would love to hear from you.