{"id":4257,"date":"2025-05-15T17:49:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T16:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2026-02-16T16:55:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T15:55:05","slug":"weil-bees-in-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4257","title":{"rendered":"Weil bees in the City"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

‘You don’t need a hive to help bees’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As World Bee Day <\/a>approaches on 20 May, it’s good to look back at how Weil has supported bees over the past eight years. When Weil law firm approached Urban Bees <\/a>eight years ago to find out how it could best help bees, we recommended that its south-facing terrace eight floors above Fetter Lane could provide an oasis for solitary bees<\/a>, which are important, but often forgotten pollinators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Improved forage:<\/strong> Urban Bees worked closely with the Weil gardener, Matt Bell, advising on flowers, shrubs and herbs to provide these wild bees with nutritious pollen and nectar from early spring to late summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a guide to some of the best bee-friendly flowers you can plant in your own garden <\/a>or window pots. The trick is to have flowers blooming sequentially from early spring to late autumn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nesting sites:<\/strong> Then we installed and maintain bee hotels, thanks to the support of Margaret Lloyd, the then Weil Facilities Services Director, and now R\u00e9my Chaugny, to provide safe nesting sites for solitary Red mason bees. These docile wild bees check into the hollow tubes contained in the cylinders and lay their eggs in early spring. See video here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education: <\/strong>Staff have taken part in Urban Bees’ bee safaris <\/strong>on the terrace where they have identified different bee species on the flowers, learned how they can help bees at home, and have made ‘bee hotels’ to put up in their own garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And every summer, 30 pupils from Friars Primary School in Southwark<\/strong> – where Weil staff volunteer \u2013 visit the office to go on a bee safari with Urban Bees\u2019 Alison Benjamin (pictured below) and a bee spotter guide. Alison also shows them how to make bee hotels<\/strong> to take home. Thanks to Sue Cook, Pro Bono & Corporate Responsibility Assistant, and Sarah Chase, Director of Research Services, for their help organising the school visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Urban Bees added a bee observation box with removable panels (pictured below) to allow pupils and staff to be able to see the life cycle of the Red mason bees from egg, to larvae eating pollen, spinning a cocoon to pupate and become an adult bee the following spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Urban Bees’ entertaining and practical lunchtime sessions about how to help bees have proved extremely popular with our employees at all levels of the firm. It’s been a fantastic way to engage employees in sustainability issues. Employees appreciate why Weil has transformed its roof terrace to provide food and lodging for wild bees. And pupils from one of our partner primary schools have come into the office to make bee hotels, gone on a rooftop bee safari with Alison Benjamin at Urban Bees and witnessed the life cycle of the bees. It’s an experience they say they’ll never forget!” <\/em>Robert Powell, former Head of Pro Bono & CSR<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, pollinator surveys<\/strong> on the Weil terrace over the summer recorded seven different species of bee;<\/p>\n\n\n\n