Bee Hotel Workshops were held at Upfront Gallery on 22nd May and 18th June. They were designed to help family groups make a bee hotel to take home to install in their own garden.
PBKA had been allocated grants from Persimmon Homes and Penrith Town Council which enabled PBKA to produce 20 commercially produced bee hotel kits. Across the two workshops: 12 bee hotels were constructed by 13 adults and 12 children.
The remaining 8 kits will be used at workshops at community events now being planned for 2023.
Each workshop session was introduced by Margaret Riches, a PBKA member who explained the similarities and differences between the three main types of bees in the UK : Honey bees, Bumble bees and Solitary bees. Each family group was provided with a presentation pack about bees , which included information about the types of Solitary bees that will be most likely to use the bee hotel as a nesting site: Leaf cutter bees and the Red mason bee. For further information they were recommended to read: ‘The Secret Lives of Garden Bees ‘ by Jean Vernon. (publ. Pen & Sword 2020)
Feedback from attendees included the following comments:
| I enjoyed it | 100% | A lot | A little | Not at all | ||
| Making the bee hotel was | 42% | Easy | 58% | A little difficult | Very difficult |
The best thing was:
-Everyone in our family enjoyed it
-The fun we had whilst here
-It was fun making the hotel and I enjoyed learning about bees.
-Having a finished bee hotel that can be put to good use.
-The construction
-The hotel
-Not getting glue all over herself and the grand daughter helping her and us all laughing about it.
-Glueing on the cute little bee with the glue gun.
-Glueing
-Learning about bees.
The Bee Hotel workshop could have been improved by:
–All good thank you
-Honey to taste
-Larger visuals at the front.
-A sweetie or two.
-seeing some bees
-More guidance to make it.
-No improvements needed. Margaret was very good. An excellent way to spend an hour.
