Surrey Natural Beekeeping

21/08/2026

Bumblebees need flowers to fuel their flight and provide food for larvae to grow into new bumblebees. Here are three simple ways to help them out this weekend:

✂️ Deadhead plants – remove flowers that have finished to encourage plants to produce lots of lovely new flowers and a fresh supply of nectar and pollen.

💦 Water – help plants to grow flowers by watering gently around the base of plants in the evening or early morning.

🪵 Mulch – add a layer of material, like bark, compost or decorative gravel, around plants to help suppress weeds and retain water.

For more bumblebee-friendly gardening ideas check out our free guide: https://ow.ly/z8YJ50ZscG9

🔎🐝 Shrill carder bumblebee
📷 Clair Fidler

21/08/2026

05/08/2026

"Two of the most frequently used chemicals in pet flea and tick treatments – imidacloprid and fipronil – are banned for use in pesticides in the EU and UK due to their severe toxicity to fish, invertebrates, bees and pollinators. "

Over-the-counter treatments for cats and dogs contain chemicals that are banned in pesticides and pollute waterways

21/07/2026

Due to the prolonged dry heat Flowers are probably struggling to produce nectar.

The furry bodies of UK bumblebees are specially adapted for cold weather - making heatwaves a struggle.

21/05/2026

May is a special month for UK bumblebees – the Big Eight are joined by some of our rare and less common species 💛

👑 This month, some of these rare and less common queens will emerge from hibernation. Already active queens will produce their first daughters – the workers 💼

🎱 For the Big Eight, some queens will produce their first workers while others will welcome new males 🚹

What bumblebees have you spotted recently? How many have you seen so far this year?

21/05/2026

Do your bees stray and pinch nectar from someone else's flowers ....

Medieval Irish bees had a legal status because they were classified as domestic livestock.

20/05/2026

We’re thrilled to share some exciting news from Maple Farm! 🌿🦎

Today, we received confirmation from the Newt Conservation Partnership that our rewilding project has been approved to create two large ponds, providing vital habitat for great crested newts — a protected species.

Over the past two years, we’ve been carefully monitoring trial pits to assess their viability, so this is a fantastic milestone for the project. We’re hopeful that plans will progress over the coming weeks and that digging can begin soon!

We’re incredibly proud that the work being carried out at Maple Farm is helping to support and protect local wildlife, creating a thriving space for nature to flourish. 💚

20/05/2026

If we look after them they look after the planet

This year’s theme “Bee Together for People and the Planet - A partnership that sustains us all” aims to stress the strong and long-lasting partnership betwee...

10/05/2026

We had a great afternoon at RHS Wisley Gardens looking at the rewinding projects and bees. Photos show a couple of inhabited log hives, a wild colony in a chimney and a tree sculpture of honeybees and comb.
Thanks to Mark Tuson for taking us around the gardens and the very informative day.

23/04/2026

In this video, created by two film makers who recently visited Maple Farm, Jack (one of the Directors from our rewilding partners, Youngwilders, talks openly about the problems facing nature in he UK, and how their organisation is encouraging young people to learn and become directly involved in nat