To bee or not to bee

Quorum Park Wildlife Walk

The complicated truth about the Quorum Beehives!

We have nine onsite beehives at Quorum Park. We have long celebrated our nature friendly approach to harvesting honey (we only take honey from frames beneath the hive, collecting excess honey rather than taking honey from the hive – no sugar substitutes here like you might find in a commercial hive), we love offering Quorum branded honey pots and are proud to say that connection to nature has been such a big part of our brand for so long.

BUT as time has gone by, we’ve realised that beehives aren’t the whole story.

In truth, rather than ordering in shop bought pollinators, a better area of focus would have been what we mainly focus on these days: nature stewardship, enhancing our existing space and local ecosystem.

An excellent analogy – if your land is natures supermarket, think of honeybees as driving SUVs loading the boot in the car park, local pollinators (think solitary bees, birds, butterflies, bats and moths) however, are on foot, shoving what they can into shopping bags of various sizes depending on their own circumstances. In land management you’ve got to think about the variety of ‘customers’ and adapt the space accordingly.

SO what does that look like? Read on for our top tips!

It’s all very well looking after butterflies with nectar rich planting – but have you created a space to look after caterpillars? (next year’s butterflies). Dark, damp and rotting spaces are caterpillar paradise and home to many insects that support local birds. Why not consider a stumpery area.

Variety is the spice of life – leaving the grass to grow long is a great start but really, the key is creating diversity – different spaces suiting different life. Why not experiment with cutbacks at different times, with areas devoted to different roles. Our long bamboo area provides excellent cover for wildlife (and climate adaptation in the form of flood defence) but when we cut a section back, the amount of wildflowers that sprung up was a revelation.

Front of house we proudly display bursts of colour with pollinator friendly planting. Best choices? Think local where you can and give bedding plants a miss – nice easy access like single headed flowers like cosmos, landing pad style like yarrow or a big bee favourite, immersive tube shapes like foxglove.

Did you know bees tend to stick to one plant at a time when collecting pollen? Plant smart and keep plants in drifts of bee friendly colour.

Try and avoid pesticides and instead focus on creating a healthy ecosystem. At Quorum allotment we’ve gone chemical free and instead rely on the local bird, spider and ladybird population to keep pests at bay and avoid adding unnecessary nasties into the soil.

Keep an eye on the Quroum Park App for updates on the Quorum Honey Ballot where you can get your hands on our tasty onsite honey.