I’ve been a Volunteer at Stanwick Lakes since 2004 and during that time I’ve watched the very worrying decline of Northamptonshire’s wild Honeybee colonys. Back in 2009 I went along to one of Stanwick Lakes’ annual general meetings and suggested we do something about it…

Rangers, Mark & Geoff, with (me) Doug, Volunteer

When Stanwick Lakes agreed to help out I got myself signed up to a beekeeping course with The Bedford Beekeeping Association, where I’m now a member. A few weeks later I took responsibility of Stanwick Lakes’ first two bee hives. With our generous funding from the Big Lottery Fund now, we’re hoping to expand our operations to ten hives.

Rangers, Geoff and Mark, will be aiming to train up 8 Community Beekeepers and have kindly organised a Taster Session for Thursday 8th of March at 6pm. It will be a great opportunity for potential volunteers to hear about how we hope to get new volunteers involved with the project and to find out what you should get to experience along the way.

I look foward seeing lot’s of new faces as we sample some of the honey that our bees have already produced!

– Doug (Volunteer Beekeeper)