Megan’s new ‘hotel’ business is the bee's knees
 

IT’S never been more important to take action for insects, so Cuddington conservationist Megan Bird is doing just that and has created quite a buzz with her new business.

The 24-year-old has launched Bird’s Bees a ‘chain’ of bee hotels to encourage wildlife fans to welcomes bees to their gardens and ensure these valuable pollinators continue to survive.

The idea came about when the former Weaverham High School and Reaseheath College student returned home from travelling just before lockdown.

Megan returned to Cuddington in March having spent eight months volunteering with conservation projects across Asia. During her time overseas, she worked with giant pandas in China, pangolins in Vietnam, elephants in Thailand and helped with the Mangrove Community Project in Bali.

She has also registered as a volunteer with Cheshire Wildlife Trust which is currently running an Act for Insects campaign.

Although Megan, who has a master’s in animal conservation from the University of Chester, says main love is primates. She studied the mouse lemur in Madagascar during her undergraduate degree and hopes to work in genetics in the future to help ensure the future of endangered species such as the white rhino.

But since returning to the UK, her focus has become a little more micro and her love of insects prompted her to do something to raise awareness of their importance.

She said: “I arrived home in March just before lockdown. Although I had some work lined up before things shut down, I fell through the furlough gap and found myself unemployed and with a lot of time on my hands.

“I’ve spent the past few years focusing on large species, especially primates so, I started to channel my energy into how I could make a difference for local wildlife in my garden. I started putting up bird feeders, making bug hotels and the idea just expanded from there.”

Megan makes the hotels, which are most suitable for solitary bees such as mason or leafcutter bees, from wood sourced from a local tree surgeon and drills holes into the trunk to accommodate nesting bees.

She said: “Colony bees such as bumblebees or honeybees all live together. Solitary bees are exactly as they sound. In the wild, they might usually lay their eggs in dead plant stems, but due to the destruction of their natural habitats there is less chance for them to do so, so man-made habitations such as this are helpful.”

Megan says she is delighted will how well the products have been received.

She said: “I had no idea how well they’d sell. At first, I thought I might only sell five but I think it’s been around 70 to date. Local people have been so supportive. I am very pleased that people have taken an interest.

“It’s really important that we do what we can to help these amazing creatures as they are they are so important to our survival.”

As well as making bee hotels, Megan provides information on the different types of pollinators you might find in your garden and also sells a range of wildflower seeds on her Etsy site to encourage insects such butterflies, moths, hoverflies, wasps.

To find out more about Bird’s Bees visit facebook.com/BirdsBeesHotels or etsy.com/uk/shop/BirdsBeesHotels