Poppy’s passion is a hive and well after nasty raid
LITTLE Poppy Liddle is back to her beloved beekeeping after thieves stole her hive.
Poppy, eight, was distraught that the creatures she tended for six months were pinched.
But the kindness of strangers has triumphed over the mean-spirited raiders and they raised enough to buy her a new hive.
Poppy’s interest in bees and their important work was sparked by a school project two years ago.
She asked for a beekeeping experience day for her birthday – and despite getting stung was hooked.The youngster spent all her money on seeds and compost to grow flowers – and held a garden sale to raise money to start keeping bees.
Poppy saved enough to buy a hive and developed a thriving colony over the winter, sharing updates on Facebook page Poppy’s Garden.
But earlier this month the hive and all the bees were taken from their home – a field on a friend’s farm in
Sidlesham,West Sussex. Her finance worker father Lee, 36 – who described his daughter as “mad about bees” – said: “One of the hardest challenges is to get your bees through the winter.We managed to do that with great success.
“Then to have this setback was so disappointing.” Poppy’s stepmum Claire Byrne set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for the new bee colony – and the family were thrilled to collect more than £1,500.
They will spend some of it on security to protect the bees.
Poppy, from Selsey, said: “Losing the hive was really sad.
“But the donations just show a lot of people in this world are really nice too.We don’t know what we are going to do with all the money yet but we would like to help other young beekeepers.Thank you all and I look forward to sharing by beekeeping videos with you again.”