Dear Netter:
Short of being a bee-keeper myself, I take interest at least in the
news related to bee-keeping in UK possibly because my late father was
a trained and experienced bee-keeper. Recently I came to know from an
Assamese newspaper online that Assam Government also has some activity
in this field.
I hope the following news generates interest.
- bhuban
Financial Times, August 26, 2011
Hives benefit the environment and employees, writes Emma Jacobs
Hive of activity: Xavier Rolet, LSE chief executive [picture: not
reproduced]
Despite its recent battering, the London Stock Exchange will next month
take on thousands of new workers. The new recruits, however, are not
traders, but worker bees, as the LSE becomes the latest business to
install hives on its premises.
Xavier Rolet, LSE chief executive, is enthusiastic about the project.
He keeps bees at his family’s home, in a converted medieval priory in
Provence. When the LSE takes delivery of its two hives, housing 100,000
bees in the heart of London, it will be helping to maintain a fragile
and dwindling population.
In recent years concern has grown over declining numbers of honey bees
in North America and Europe. Earlier this year, the International Bee
Research Association found that US beekeepers lost an average of 42 per
cent of their colonies during the past winter. Losses in the three
previous winters ranged from 29 per cent to 36 per cent. Beekeepers
generally regard a loss of about 15 per cent as acceptable.
According to the London Beekeepers Association, “urban bees have a wide
range of forage, as the gardens and green spaces in cities contain a
rich variety of trees and flowers. This, and the slightly milder
weather, means that the beekeeping season is longer and usually more
productive than in rural areas.”
Concern over declining bee numbers has led to an increase in part-time
beekeepers, or apiarists. And companies are showing greater interest in
housing beehives.
When part-time apiarist Robin Leigh-Pemberton was governor of the Bank
of England between 1983 and 1993, the bank played host to bee colonies.
Vince Cable, the UK business secretary, is a beekeeping enthusiast who
has spearheaded campaigns to raise funding for bee research.
The LSE hopes that its employees will play a role in the bees’ upkeep;
the stock exchange will be providing beekeeping suits for staff. It
will also be using some of the honey produced by the bees to offer as
corporate gifts.
Nomura, the Japanese investment bank, has two hives at the top of its
building, home to two roof gardens, overlooking the river Thames. It is
part of a project with The Golden Company, a social enterprise that
runs business skills training programmes for young people. Golden
Company members will harvest Nomura’s honey and then raise money by
selling it to the bank.
For the bank, the project provides an opportunity to establish its
environmental credentials, and so “give something back to the city”,
says Dominic Cashman, the managing director, chief administrative
office, Emea.
Martin Farrington, the head of IT and digital services at The Future
Laboratory, a market research consultancy, was funded by his company to
attend a beekeeping course. “It’s an extra perk, like gym membership. I
can’t wait to come to work now, it provides a different incentive to
money.”
Dave Geer, managing director of Warren Evans, a bed retailer, acquired
two hives for the back of the company’s workshop in Walthamstow,
north-east London. “I wanted something for the warehouse [employees] to
interest them other than work. I want to have things that are a bit fun
and not just about work,” he says.
Mr Geer says beekeeping is a good way to combat stress. “It’s relaxing.
You have to move slowly and think carefully and be absorbed in what’s
going on in order not to disturb the bees. Quite a few people have told
me they find it absorbing and interesting.”
The company has consulted staff on the project: “There are a couple of
people who’ve been stung badly as children and don’t want to get
involved.” That said, a number of employees who used to lurk at the
back when the bee hives were opened have become intrigued and since
moved to the front, he says.
“It gives people something to talk about. We won’t sell any beds on the
back of the beehive. Though I did have a planning officer round [to
approve an extension] who took quite an interest in the bees – maybe
our hive helped."
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