Beekeeper helping kids get a buzz from nature

A beekeeper from Leeds is inspiring a generation of schoolchildren from urban parts of the city to love the winged insects.

Kate Turner took up beekeeping during lockdown and began cultivating her own 30,000-strong hive after taking an online course.

Ms Turner set up Bee Inspired Eco Education, a community interest company which aims to educate young people about the natural world, last year.

Speaking ahead of World Bee Day on Tuesday, Ms Turner said the creatures were "vital" for the future of the planet.

The species' powers of pollination keep the world's eco-system and food chain thriving, but the United Nations has warned that bees are increasingly under threat from human activities.

"I started learning about bees with a view to then teaching and talking to others about them and inspiring people to love nature," Ms Turner said.

"Our young people are our protectors of the future and it's really important that we inspire them to love the world around them and care for it."

With the help of a grant from Climate Action Leeds, Bee Inspired now has a partnership with 10 inner city schools, most of them primaries from deprived neighbourhoods where children may struggle to regularly access green space and nature.

Ms Turner, 51, will regularly take a colony to the schools so pupils can learn about the lives of bees.

In addition, she runs a hive at the CATCH community centre in Harehills where children from an after-school club get a buzz from observing the insects in their own habitat.

"The kids absolutely love it and their enthusiasm is really infectious," she added.

"We do other activities around the importance of planting for bees all year round. We make wildflower seed bombs and talk about the simple things everyone can do, regardless of whether or not they have a garden, to help conserve our bees."

Ms Turner said beekeeping was a "fascinating hobby", but warned that due to its cost and complexities it is not one "you can just jump into without thinking about it".

She added: "If you want to save bees and help them, the big thing to do is to plant for them.

"Even if you've not got a garden, you can just use a window box and plant flowers in it and that's a brilliant thing to do."

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