What links David Beckham, Jeremy Clarkson, Ed Sheeran and now, Lord Wandsworth College? 

The answer? Bees

Some of our most high-profile British stars have made no secret of their love of apiculture and now students and staff at LWC are joining their hallowed ranks.

This week, 35,000 honeybees have become part of the LWC community and have taken up residence in an idyllic hazel copse, tucked away behind Stern Farm. The project is the brainchild of Catering Manager, Iain Hedley, who was inspired by a local charity.

“My family is really environmentally-driven,” he explains. “We saw a stall run by an organisation called Hive Helpers at a sustainability fair in Farnham a while ago. I went on one of their ‘Pollen-8’ courses and that was it.”

He goes on to describe an early summer’s evening, when asked about the moment he was motivated to do more. “We were standing in our beekeeping suits, in our rubber gloves and you could just hear the hives. We were then asked if we wanted to get into them and we all just looked at each other. It was a breathtaking moment, being in amongst the bees. There were five hives, with upwards of 200,000 bees but they weren’t flying around us,” he muses. “They were all going about their business, solely focused on getting the job done. I think if I had been there and not come away inspired to kick on and do something, then I’d have missed the point altogether.”

Honeybee colonies function because of their ability to work in harmony…Research suggests that honeybees can dream and feel emotions like fear and contentment ”

—Erica Evans, Hive Helpers Founder

And so, the LWC honeybee project was born, with the help of the woman who inspired the journey in the first place. Erica Evans founded Hive Helpers and is Head Beekeeper at the charity’s main apiary at Farnham Community Farm. She was asked to advise on the set-up of the LWC hive and was happy to help.

“Honeybees are a great way to get people interested in all pollinators.” She reasons. “I like to think of them as the ‘gateway’ pollinator! By getting more people interested in bees, you’re raising awareness of the problems they’re facing and helping people to make choices to support essential wild pollinators, aswell as managed colonies.” Erica goes on to explain, “Having insects on site which LWC is personally responsible for, will allow the team and students to consider how the farmland around the hive is managed and will increase the likelihood of them making decisions which benefit pollinators.”

The bees have arrived from Windsor and are now overwintering in their copse until the warmer weather arrives. “The colony, like all bee colonies at this time of year, will be dormant,” explains Erica. “In the spring of 2025, that’s when they’ll really get going.”

The copse has been chosen as a location for a variety of reasons. “The structure of the space around there means that the bees have good shelter from the weather,” Iain continued. “It will remain cool enough when it’s really warm and warm enough when it gets colder. The nearby food stores are also good in terms of what the farm is planting in the fields and the nearby hedgerows.”

But beyond the logistics of getting 35,000 bees from a Berkshire town to a North Hampshire idyll, the ends appear to strongly justify the means.

Bees pollinate our crops, trees and flowers, which then support other insects. In turn, birds, bats, mammals and everything further up the food chain benefits. Bees are also incredibly valuable for countryside communities. It’s thought it would cost UK farmers £1.8 billion a year to pollinate crops manually if bees disappeared. But there are also much wider benefits for LWC in general.

“Aswell as the agricultural impact, there’s also the potential for student engagement,” Iain points out. “I genuinely believe that when the pupils can understand the opportunities, they’ll be all over it. Some can use beekeeping as a DofE skill. It’s also great for wellbeing. Beekeepers do a lot with veterans because from a mindfulness perspective, it’s such a rewarding activity. And in the longer term, there’s the honey. But if you are keeping bees to make honey, then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”

A new home: The bee clearing in the hazel copse

LWC Headmaster, Adam Williams needs no persuading that the bees are a welcome addition: “With a staggering 97% of UK wildflower meadows lost since the 1930’s, this represents a massive reduction in an important food resource. We’ve taken a stand. These invaluable meadows have been re-sown, re-distributed and are ready.”

The LWC bees are small cell bees, chosen for their resistance to mites. The location of the hive is away from walkers and passers-by and the strategy of checkerboarding allows the bees enough space within the hive, which prevents them from leaving and swarming.

“I’m really heartened that LWC wants to pursue sustainable, fair and low-intervention beekeeping,” concludes Erica. And what can we expect from our newest residents? “It’s quite possible for beekeepers to notice different personalities in their colonies,” she adds. “You can have one quite calm hive and another feisty one. It’s said bumblebees are better problem-solvers than honeybees, but honeybee colonies function because of their ability to work in harmony and research suggests that honeybees can dream and feel emotions like fear and contentment.”

We look forward to building a little corner of contentment for them at LWC.

You can learn more about the work of Hive Helpers here.