A hive of activity in Devizes

Eden as sponsor of this year’s Wiltshire Bee and Honey Day

Eden was very pleased to be invited to sponsor the 2021 Wiltshire Bee and Honey Day, held in October in Devizes. This popular annual community event had missed a year due to Covid and the Corn Exchange was buzzing with activity from the minute the doors opened on an unseasonally warm and sunny Saturday. 

Lots of interesting chats with established beekeepers and novices about the biodiversity benefits of our solar farms were underpinned by an excellent talk by our ecologist, Dr. Guy Parker of Wychwood Biodiversity. Guy spoke about the causes of declining bee populations - changes in land use, the industrialisation of farming, and climate change - and the ways we can mitigate that on solar farms with positive measures like sowing wildflowers and planting new hedgerows to boost ecology and biodiversity. He also presented the evidence supporting his research; we will be uploading a recording of Guy’s talk shortly, so watch this space.

Eden’s ecologist, Dr. Guy Parker of Wychwood Biodiversity, talking about how our solar farms mitigate declining bee populations

Delicious honey was on sale from beekeepers across the county. We were delighted to raise over £50 for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust from sales of Eden’s solar honey, made by bees which forage on solar farms our team created, and gave away lots of taster samples too. 

Several beekeepers from Melksham, Kennet, and as far afield as Bristol said they would like to keep their hives at Forest Gate or Leigh Delamere once the new meadows and grassland are established - we look forward to perhaps seeing Wiltshire solar honey on sale at a future show.

We also distributed lots of Friends of the Earth Bee Saver kits and sachets of bee-friendly wildflower seeds which we hope will make a small and immediate difference to local biodiversity.

With our stand strategically placed next to local brewers Wadworth's the team had a chance to sample their refreshing honey beer, while candle-rolling proved particularly popular with the kids.

Sophy, Harry, and Rebecca staffing the Eden table

It was heartening to hear such an enthusiastic response from almost everyone we spoke to about our plans to create solar farms with multiple land uses: generating renewable energy, sequestering carbon, boosting biodiversity and continuing in food production with sheep grazing. As one person said to us, “It just makes sense to use land like this, it’s a win for the climate and a win for the countryside too!”