Biggest bee house in the world at Barking Riverside
The world’s largest bee house in the world at Barking Riverside was opened for bee business on Saturday 18th June. Local volunteers and residents helped London Wildlife Trust and Make:Good to build the house out of wood and bamboo.
Alison Benjamin, co-author of “A World Without Bees”, adjudicated this world record attempt and confirmed that the Barking Riverside’s bee house is 16.56m2, (13.04m by 1.27m), exceeding that built by the current record holder, Kent Wildlife Trust, by nearly 5m2.
Volunteers took up the task of building the bee house three weeks ago, contributing over 750 hours of work involving the cutting over 20,000 pieces of bamboo, sawing over 200 logs, drilling numerous holes and building the housing structure. The bee house, sponsored by Barking Riverside Ltd and the Big Lottery Fund, will provide thousands of valuable nesting sites for Barking Riverside’s 30 or so solitary bee species.
The event attracted 80 willing volunteers mainly from the Thames View community in Barking, wishing to help finish the bee house to make it a Guinness World Record. The day concluded about 4.30pm, after the final log had been placed, measurements been made, and when local Scout volunteer, Owen McNaughton, shouted “we’ve got a mover-inner”, as he watched the first bee crawl into one of the bamboo canes claiming the bee house to be their new home.
The event attracted 80 willing volunteers mainly from the Thames View community in Barking, wishing to help finish the bee house to make it a Guinness World Record. The day concluded about 4.30pm, after the final log had been placed, measurements been made, and when local Scout volunteer, Owen McNaughton, shouted “we’ve got a mover-inner”, as he watched the first bee crawl into one of the bamboo canes claiming the bee house to be their new home.
Barking Riverside’s Conservation Officer, Francesca Barker said
“We have built this bee house at Barking Riverside to provide habitat for solitary bees which are in decline in Britain. It has been incredible how much support we have received. Not only have our local residents and volunteers invested a lot of their evening and weekend time to help out, but the local businesses have been very kind through providing us with all sorts of things such as roofing felt, excavators, top soil and one business even dismantled a whole floor of their scaffolding so we could use the scaffold boards for the housing structure!”
“We have built this bee house at Barking Riverside to provide habitat for solitary bees which are in decline in Britain. It has been incredible how much support we have received. Not only have our local residents and volunteers invested a lot of their evening and weekend time to help out, but the local businesses have been very kind through providing us with all sorts of things such as roofing felt, excavators, top soil and one business even dismantled a whole floor of their scaffolding so we could use the scaffold boards for the housing structure!”
Alison Benjamin highlighted the plight of our bees on Saturday saying ”The lack of foraging plants, nesting sites and the use of pesticides are having an overwhelming impact on our native bee species, however it is possible to do our bit to help through providing nesting sites, like Barking Riverside’s bee hotel, and planting the right flowering plants in our gardens.”
Solitary bees are the lesser known bees that don’t form a colony, make vast amounts of honey, or sting, but make up 90% of our bee population. They look for small tunnels or holes in which to make their individual nest cells for their larvae, and should love the bamboo sticks of the Barking Riverside Bee House. The bamboo sticks mimic dead plant stems which are a natural nesting material for certain solitary bees.
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