News

When: 11-23 May 2015
Who: everyone interested
Where: all over Europe
What: plant flowers for bees

Description:

Are you interested in supporting the survival of bees? YEE has some good news for you! For YEE's grassroots campaign "The Right to Be(e)", we want to invite all our member organisations and YEE friends to organise flower planting actions within their communities.

The events will take place between 11 and 23 May 2015. We encourage you to gather a team of bee-lovers and contribute to the creation of a better habitat for the small yellow insects.

Afterward, we will collect materials from all teams (articles, photos) and promote them within the YEE network.

Do you want to plant flowers for your local bees? Do it, fill in this template and send it with your pictures to Vladimir Jordanov This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Keep buzzing!

The Winners

The big winner of our competition was Gutta-Club from Moldova with the "Save bees" workshop. Buzzing congratulations to them! Second place went to MUDDUM with their "Sweet colours", while the third place was awarded to "The Buzzing Beehive" from Vi Odlar!.  We want to congratulate all the participants for their amazing activities and to use their examples as inspiration for other bee projects.

              Gutta-Club receiving the prize                                            MUDDUM receiving the prize 

            Biodiversa receiving the prize                                               OPE receiving the prize  

              Mine Vaganti receiving the prize

Hu2 Design has generously given us some fabulous, eco-friendly prizes. Find them on Facebook here. 

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Entry #1: The Buzzing Beehive 

Name of the workshop: The Buzzing Beehive

Organisation: Vi Odlar! (NGO gardening group) / Lund University

Country: Sweden

Workshop description: Under the label 'The Buzzing Beehive' we set up a beehive in the cultural center Stenkrossen in Lund. With three workshops, we conducted environmental education with children aged 8-11 years from Lunds International School. The motivation for doing this project resulted from two major considerations. Firstly, people's commitment to the natural environment has decreased, particularly visible in children's knowledge and experience of nature. Secondly, the decline of bee colonies endangers ecosystem stability as well as human food supply. Our project goal was to raise children's awareness of the importance of bees. Thus, we spiked their curiosity and interest in beekeeping. By establishing the beehive together, we promoted their interest in and awareness of nature with hands-on interaction. For more information, please clilck here. 

Entry #2: Sweet colours

Name of workshop: Sweet colours

Organisation: MUDDUM

Country: Czech Republic

Workshop description: In order to learn that we can make DIY art supplies without strong chemical products, we made our own honey-based watercolours out of natural earthy pigments (sienna, ochre and black), a bit of arabic gum and local artisanal honey. Honey is used as an humectant (a substance that retains water), in our watercolours we used as the medium as well. Afterwards we used them to paint on a honeycomb grid to study its visual and structural properties.
More information can be found here. 

Entry #3: In Defense of Bees

Name of workshop: Ecoclubinos&EB1/JI Alheiras in defense of Bees

Organisation: OPE – Organização para a Promoção dos Ecoclubes

Country: Portugal

Workshop description: On February 7th, the ecoclube Ecoclubinos Gaia visited once again the school EB1/JI of Alheiras, this time taking with him a great little friend who left all the school students very happy! Our friend Bee spoke of the importance of his family to preserve the balance of ecosystems and taught the children to know and sow honey species - that help the production of honey. Each student took the challenge to grow your sunflower and help preserve our friendly honey bees that only bite us when they want to protect themselves!

 
Entry #4: 'More Than Honey' Movie Exhibition

Name of workshop: 'More Than Honey' Movie Exhibition

Organisation: OPE – Organização para a Promoção dos Ecoclubes

Country: Portugal

Workshop description: On March 8th, OPE organized a screening of the film "More than Honey", with a debate promoted by Peter, a beekeeper from the Transition Movement of Paredes. The activity occured in the auditorium of Maria Isabel Guerra Junqueiro and Luis Carvalho Pinto de Mesquita Foundation, in Porto. The projection brought together about 30 people and there was a really enriched discussion. The activity also included a demonstration of melliferous herbs.

Entry #5: Regional Day for Bees

Name of workshop: Regional Day for Bees

Organisation: SVČ (Středisko volného času)

Country: Czech Republic

Workshop description: The tenth day of the regional bee - every year for the past 10 years our community has been actively involved in supporting local bees. On the regional day for bees there was lectures, competitions for both young and old citizens and an children's art contest. The judges selected the best children's art which included art for bees.

Entry #6: Non-formal education about bees

Name of workshop: Non-formal education about bees

Organisation: Mine Vaganti

Country: Italy

Workshop description: Members of Mine Vaganti visited two local Primary Schools to lead sessions of non-formal education about the important role of the bees. Participants analized  videos and proposed a creative defense action plan for the bees!

Entry #7: Think like a bee

Name of workshop: Think like a bee

Organisation: Biodiversa

Country: Spain

Workshop description: Gardens offer some of the most important habitats for bee conservation. Participants learnt how to turn any given garden into a bee-friendly garden. For this, they needed to think like a bee! Using this approach they: made a wild corner; provided shelter for the bees; planted for all the seasons; found the right flowers; created nesting sites for solitary bees; used certain plants instead of pesticides; created a bee hotel!

Entry #8: Save bees

Name of workshop: Save bees

Organisation: Republic Centre for Children and Youth GUTTA-CLUB

Country: Moldova

Workshop description: With our youth in action, Gutta-Club organized "Save Bees" which included a lecture about the problem itself and discussions about the importance of bees in our lives, what people can and should do to help bees survive and restore their colonies and population. Each of the participants presented a painting about bee life and bee "enemies". They made up a motto for the action "Save BEES – Save the Planet!". We made a flash-mob and spelt out Save BEES by sitting on the ground. Finally the young participants composed a fairytale about the ecological problems of the 21st century, with bees being the central characters, who with the help of the youngest generation solved all the problems and restored balance between nature and society!

Check out:

Workshop guides

The Vote: 

Vote for your favourite workshop! The poll should only allow a user to vote once per device. The deadline for votes is Wednesday 30th July 2014. 

Click on the link below to vote: 

Best Bee Workshop 2014

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Join this years competition for the best workshop about bees!

The winner will receive amazing prizes: 

• €50 gift voucher for any eco wall sticker on the Hu2 Design online store.

The runners up will receive an eco wall sticker as in the picture.

How to take part:

• submit this form along with 3 photographs to Jessica at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The competition will be judged by public vote.

You can use our workshop guides or come up with your own idea!  Anyone is welcome to enter.

Deadline for submissions: Friday 18 July 2014

If you choose to try some guerrilla gardening, it is very important that you pick a safe but neglected area of public land. You do not want to get into trouble for trespassing on private land. Check your country's legal position on guerrilla gardening now. Attitudes vary across Europe. 

"The kind of guerrilla gardening that I advocate is mostly public land that is neglected. To me this is a fantastic resource for us all. This is our land. It's public already and if it isn't being looked after, if it's been forgotten about or abused, or attracting anti-social behaviour then imagine what it could be instead."

Richard Reynolds, TED Talk (watch here)

You will need to check the area for broken glass and dangerous waste first. Be aware of busy roads and your personal safety. 

Think small: Plant in all the small, grey corners of your city. Some poppies by the bus stop... lettuce on the street corner... sunflowers by the recycling bins. A lot of small actions will green the city! You do not have to take big risks. 

Some ideas:

Window sills 

Doorsteps

Hanging baskets 

Terraces

Rooftops

Public areas:

Read our Guerrilla Gardening Guide!