This summer we’re excited to help protect our native British bees and wildlife, by sponsoring a Buckley’s Bees hive.
As many of our customers know, Hicks & Brown started life at our family home, Hicks Farm, in beautiful rural Suffolk. As sisters growing up, the surrounding countryside was our playground and we spent our summers climbing trees, rolling down grassy hills and riding through nature. From the meadow flowers to butterflies and bumble bees, watching our fields and forests come alive was enthralling as children - it still is today. And we continue to look to our natural landscape for inspiration when designing our town-to-country hats.
So, hearing about how increasingly under threat our natural world currently is, we are keen to do what we can to support it. So we’re thrilled to share our brand new project with you!
In time for World Bee Day on May 20th, we’ve teamed up with Buckley’s Bees to sponsor our very own Hicks & Brown hive!
In the last 10 years, our countryside has changed dramatically and the impact is being felt most acutely by the natural world. In Britain we’ve already lost one third our bee population and globally bees and other crucial pollinators, like bats and butterflies, are under threat.
So to show nature how much we care, we will be contributing to future biodiversity and highlighting the importance of pollinators in our environment, with our own hive of bees at Buckley’s Bees Apiary. Like us, Buckley’s is a country-based, family-run business and it has 55 years of experience in beekeeping. And we’re excited to be housing a colony of home-bred honeybees and one queen bee.
The plight of bees has never been so important so for 2023, World Bee Day is calling for global action to support pollinator-friendly agriculture. Bees and other pollinators are crucial to the environment and to our future. In fact, nearly three quarters of the crops we eat depend on bees and other pollinators. In their tireless work of transporting pollen on their furry bodies from one flower to the next, they help to create the production of a variety of plants, fruits, nuts and seeds, which means they’re also contributing to our future food security. This year’s theme for World Bee Day is Bee Engaged in pollinator-friendly agriculture production - and the Hicks & Brown team will be doing just that on our visits to Buckley Bees Apiary in Cheshire to spend time with our bees. We’re excited to meet them, we’ll even have our own Hicks & Brown plaque.
Here’s to British summertime!
5 Bee Aware Facts
- Three-quarters of the world’s crops depend, at least in part, on pollination.
- Honey contains minerals, amino acids, vitamins, enzymes, and proteins, antioxidants and iron, zinc. And as well as adding to food and drinks, honey can be used an an antibacterial agent.
- World Bee Day is celebrated on May 20 because on that day in 1734, Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born.
- Bees are so amazing that in Britain they travel along B-Lines. These ‘insect pathways’ run through urban and rural areas linking wildlife areas together in a network.
- If you find a bee that looks in need, firstly it might be resting, but to aid it put it carefully on a bee-friendly flower.