Get buzzing about bees

Striped, fluffy or smaller than your thumbnail, bees are little insect wonders. They’re also vital to our planet – and in big trouble.

Bees are in severe decline, with habitat loss, pollution and climate change pushing them towards the edge. Without bees – an integral part of our ecosystem – the natural world could be in serious trouble.

Getting children engaged in caring for their environment at a young age is a good way to ensure they grow up thinking about the planet and how to protect it.

Here are some tips on how to get your child interested in helping save our bees, and what you can do as a family.

Beautiful flowers

When you see a bee buzzing around flowers and plants outdoors, talk about what it’s doing – like carrying pollen from one flower to another to help the plant produce seeds to grow new plants and flowers.

Yummy food

Not only do bees make honey, but they are also vital for pollinating a huge variety of crops that are included in our diet. In fact, one in every three bites we take is made possible by bees!

Other wildlife

A garden that attracts more bees will also attract other pollinators such as butterflies, and a greater variety of plants and insects will lead to more birds visiting your garden too! This is of course great for UK wildlife, but you and your child can also learn a lot from spotting and watching the different visitors to your garden.

There are lots of ways you can get involved in helping to protect our bees, including making your garden more welcoming and banishing harsh chemicals. And if you don’t have a garden, you can still grow flowers and plants in window boxes or pots on a patio to bring more bees into your life!

The greater the variety of flowers that you have in your garden, the more likely you are to attract lots of bees. Particular bee favourites include lavender, marigolds and ox-eye daisies.

Rather than using weed killer and chemical pesticides in your garden, look into other ways of keeping pests away from your plants and vegetables. You can buy copper rings in garden centres to keep slugs away and physically keep weeds under control by pulling them up – a good activity for you and your child to do together!

Cutting your grass less often means that you’re more likely to attract bees, as well as other insects who like the moist, dark bits at the bottom. Leave your lawn for a bit and you’ll be amazed at the flowers that quickly pop up – including daisies and clover, which bees absolutely love. You could even consider keeping a patch of your garden long throughout spring and summer as a wildflower meadow: either leave it to its own devices and see what grows or buy some mixed wildflower seeds.

Bees don’t just like buzzing around plants and flowers; they also like hanging out in old walls, bits of bare ground and piles of wood. Making or buying a bee hotel is a great way for you and your child to learn more about bees, giving you opportunities to see how they live and behave. You can make a bee hotel – or a bee ‘n’ bee! – in your garden with just a few basic materials.

If you’re short of time or energy, you can buy a bee hotel from any local garden centre!

Written for the Early Years Alliance by Siobhan Godwood and updated/adapted by Jess Gibson.