It might sound unlikely, but we're buzzing about Black Friday this year. Why? Because we're joining forces with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust to donate £1 from every order to help our flying furry friends.
Honey bees might get all the headlines, but bumblebees are a keystone species in the UK, and they're in crisis. 'Keystone' means they're critical to the survival of other species in the ecosystem, and without them we could face less food and higher prices. Yes, they're fuzzy and cute. But they're also serious players for the planet.
Why are bumblebees in crisis?
It's no secret that the UK has lost huge swathes of natural habitat. A shocking 97% of our wildflower-rich meadows have disappeared over the past century. As the number of flowers and hedgerows declines, bumblebees are struggling to find enough food and shelter. With two species already extinct, and several species classed as very rare, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust are working hard to reverse the trend and help their numbers take off again.
What do the bumblebee conservation trust do?
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust was founded in 2006 to address serious concerns about the future of the UK's bumblebees. As a science-led organisation, its long term and day-to-day work is informed through their national monitoring scheme BeeWalk, conservation, outreach and engagement work and by influencing environmental policy to give bumblebees a political voice they lack to bring key actions needed to save this crucial pollinator.
Your donations will help with all this and more:
- Science - BeeWalk and species monitoring
- Outreach & Education - working with communities, policymakers and partners
- Habitat Creation & Restoration - supporting landowners to create flower-rich habitats
- Extinction Prevention - taking action for the most threatened species, like the Shrill carder.
The secret superpowers of bumblebees
We love seeing these charismatic insects in our gardens, as they 'bumble' from one flower to the next. But did you know they have a special technique called 'buzz pollination' to persuade certain flowers to release their pollen. Tomatoes, blueberries, poppies and many more, hang on tightly to their pollen. Bumblebees are able to contract their flight muscles to produce strong vibrations (and an extra loud buzz) to shake the pollen free and fill up their pollen baskets. This sonic superpower plays an important role in pollinating our fruit and veg crops. Especially when you think that globally, 88% of flowering plants and 75% of crop species require insect pollination. Bumblebees are really putting in some serious shifts alongside other pollinators to produce the food we need.
Amazzzing bumblebee facts
- There are 24 species of bumblebee in the UK
- Their scientific name Bombus means 'booming', referring to their loud buzz.
- They evolved from the Himalayas hence the fur coat!
- They're a colourful bunch: red, orange, yellow, black, white and buff.
- Bumblebees have smelly feet! By leaving behind a ‘smelly footprint’, other bumblebees can tell how recently a flower has been fed from so they know if it’s a good food source or not.
- Bumblebees have 4 wings. Their wings can beat up to 240 times per second! That’s faster than a Lamborghini.
- A bumblebee can travel up to 6km in a day in search of flowers. That’s like me or you walking the Coast to Coast path there and back, just to nip to the shops!
- Some male bumblebees have facial hair which looks like a moustache!
- Some bumblebee species have really long tongues. Varying from 6mm to over 20mm!
The issues around bee-washing
As more people become aware of the plight of pollinators in the UK, they're keen to help - think no-mow-May. Honeybees are often the poster-boy for these campaigns, but they're not the ones facing serious decline - it's the bumblebees, wild pollinators and solitary bees. All honeybees in the UK are managed by beekeepers, and well-meaning actions like increasing the number of urban bee-hives for example, only increases competition for flower-rich resources. That's why the Bumblebee Conservation Trust want to increase awareness and diversify action so that it benefits entire ecosystems and a broader range of pollinators, not just honeybees.
There’s another reason we're really buzzing about supporting the Bumblebee Conservation Trust: they share our passion for the natural world and standing up for Nature. In 2022, we were the first company in the world to put Nature on the board, giving it a voice and a vote in every business decision we make. That's worth a high-five!
