Newbury District Beekeepers Association and Mortimer Warm Welcome Group prepare to mark World Bee Day

Newbury District Beekeepers Association is celebrating World Bee Day with a free event at Thatcham’s Nature Discovery Centre this Saturday (May 17).

The session (10am-4pm) is intended to raise awareness of just how vital bees are to our ecosystem.

It will feature a selection of displays, an observation hive, children's colouring activities and interesting facts about the honeybee. Booking is not required.

Chairman Adrian Doyle said: “World Bee Day (May 20) is an important day to celebrate not just the honeybee, but all pollinators.

“Its aim is to protect bees and associated pollinators and show how crucial it is to halt the loss of these insects to maintain biodiversity.

“Pollinators are increasingly threatened by climate change, pollution, loss of habitat and various forms of pest control.

“All we ask is for small changes such as leave a playing field margin to grow, leave a margin around the village green to be as nature intended, give the garden centre spray a miss this year, plant a bee friendly tree or plant.”

And they are not the only ones keen to spread the word.

Mortimer’s Warm Welcome group have decorated Mortimer Methodist Church with knitted bees and bunting.

But rather than doing this for a single day, they decided to decorate the church for the whole of May.

Bees can now be seen hanging from the sanctuary wall and literature on bees has been displayed on the notice board in the Church Hall to emphasise their importance.

Patsy Stone, who runs the village group, explained: “We simply wouldn't be able to survive without bees.

“We’ve learned about the different sorts of bees and honeybees, the importance of bees to us and also to our environment.

“We even had fun painting bees on pebbles to put around the foot of the lovely flowering cherry tree in the church car park.”

Bees pollinate many crops and losing them would put strain on food production.

Many bee species in the UK are in severe decline, largely owing to the loss of natural habitats.

Ways people can help bees survive include planting wildflowers, buying honey locally, buying sustainably sourced agricultural products and avoiding use of pesticides, fungicides or herbicides in gardens.