Care home buzzing thanks to bee project
●● Year 5 from Helmshore Primary School with Tracey Booth, Natalie Heffner from Orchard Care Homes and resident June Matthews A NEW beekeeping project has launched at a care home, with help from local professional beekeepers and school pupils.
The project at Haslingden Hall and Lodge is the first beekeeping project that Bacup Beekeeping Club will have set up in a care environment in the region.
Having seen the positive impact of the home’s other hen keeping and creative arts projects, the care staff were keen to extend this hands-on life skills activity, and to make use of an unused area of the garden to house the bee hives and grow a wildflower meadow. They will now be housing around 150,000 bees.
Tracey Booth, activity coordinator at the 76-bed home, contacted the Bacup Beekeeping Club after we ran an article about them looking for spare land to rent for the club’s hives.
She said: “We are excited to bring this hive of activity into our home, as it is a fantastic opportunity for the residents and children to learn something new and to strengthen the vital relationship we have with the local school. Both our residents and the young ●● Bacup beekeepers Eva Holland (left) and, Christine Balshaw (right) with Tracey Booth and Helmshore Primary Year 5 beekeeper Amy people have been learning that the protection of bees has never been as important as it is now, and we hope that this project will have a positive impact on all involved.”
The new Haslingden Hall & Lodge Bee Club aims to engage both residents and children through the upkeep of bees, as well as providing craft and education sessions, and providing a thriving environment for the bees. The school will be joining the residents regularly in the home to learn more about the bees and in keeping the garden and hives, and it is hoped that some honey can be cultivated.
Home manager Emma Bingham said: “There is so much to learn by taking this project on, for staff, the residents and the school, and we are all looking forward to the benefits this project is going to bring.”
The relationship with Helmshore Primary School has been in place for over a year and has had a significant impact on home residents, with pupils visiting weekly to take part in activities. It is an additional partnership to the Little Stars nursery one, which also runs successfully within the home. Both school partnerships are innovative and effective and contribute to Children As Therapy, CATS, where relationships are nurtured between generations, with the objective to benefit both ends of the scale.