Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has thrown her weight behind the fledgling Natural Beekeeping Trust (NBKT) and has even written a poem to mark being chosen as its patron of the Sussex-based group
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has thrown her weight behind the fledgling Natural Beekeeping Trust (NBKT) and has even written a poem to mark being chosen as its patron of the Sussex-based group
When Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate and keen conservationist, was approached recently for permission to post her poem Virgil’s Bees on the NBKT website, she not only consented immediately, but kindly offered to become the Trust’s patron and write a poem to mark the occasion.
With bee colonies being wiped out in ever-increasing numbers across the world, the Natural Beekeeping Trust aims to promote and conserve the wellbeing of the honeybee through encouraging more gentle and considerate methods of farming and bee husbandry.The Natural Beekeeping Trust was officially formed in September 2009 and is based in Sussex
The Trust recently received a grant of �10,000 from the National Lottery Fund to help establish Bee Sanctuary at Plaw Hatch Farm, a biodynamic farm in Sussex. The Trust is actively engaged in teaching natural beekeeping methods and promoting organic/biodynamic agriculture. NBKT’s members and friends work to encourage more bee-friendly methods of beekeeping, and confidently state that bees’ health will improve if their needs are given higher priority. The consistent undermining of their natural instincts, in conjunction with damaging agricultural practices, appears to have pushed them to their limit. Just as with human beings, stress is a factor in numerous illnesses. There is increasing evidence to suggest that stress affects bees’ immune systems, contributing to the death and demise of thousands of colonies. Bees deserve better than that, the NBKT believes.
Carol Ann said: “I’m delighted to offer all the support I can to the Natural Beekeeping Trust and to draw attention to the age-old connection between poetry and bees. Poetry, after all, is the honey of language. We owe bees so much and should give everything in our power for their protection.”
Heidi Hermann, Trustee and founding member of the NBKT, said: “Honeybees are having a hard time surviving and this touches most of us deeply. More needs to be done to find out what they need to thrive and what we can do for them, as opposed to what we can get from them. “The Natural Beekeeping Trust is delighted to have a poet as its patron. Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry, celebrating love, nature and the bee, has power to change us, to inspire us to look with new eyes: ‘Let gardens grow where beelines end’, says our Poet Laureate in Virgil’s Bees.
“We have lost sight of the bees’ welfare in pursuit of their honey, and their gift of pollination is abused in modern agriculture. They are very sick now, they have had enough.”
