{"id":4848,"date":"2026-04-03T20:17:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T19:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4848"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:45:19","slug":"secrets-of-the-bees-filming-on-bow-bells-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4848","title":{"rendered":"Secrets of the Bees – filming on Bow Bells House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In July 2025, I invited National Geographic filmmaker, Bertie Gregory, to the rooftop garden I created and maintain for wild bees on Bow Bells House. He was looking for a central London location to film bees for his Secrets of the Bees<\/a> <\/em>documentary. Three years in the making, and shot around the world, he wanted to include a short section on bees in cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you who don’t subscribe to National Geographic TV or Disney+, I wanted to share what Bertie found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. He was shocked at the sheer number of honeybees he saw on a garden I designed for wild bees. “Honeybees aren’t wild, they are more akin to livestock”,<\/em> he says.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    2. ‘In a corner of a patch of flowers, I have found a magical kingdom. Its king is a male Wool Carder bee”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    He found Wool Carder bees on the swathes of Lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina<\/em>) I had planted especially for them because the females collect the soft fibres from the leaves to line their nest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. “It’s amazing how much drama and action there is just in this little patch”<\/em> – he films the male Wool Carder bee fighting off many honeybees and a Buff-tailed bumblebee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    4. Territorial males defend a patch from any bee and wait for a female to appear. Finally she arrives….and he pounces and quickly mates. Bertie thinks the male must be exhausted from all this fighting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    5. “It used to be thought that to save the bees you should put in lots of hives, but in reality what you’re doing is just introducing more competition”<\/em>, he says showing hives on an nearby office rootop in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    6. “What’s important is to give wild bee species enough space and food to thrive” <\/em>and he points to the Bow Bells House rooftop by way of example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    (These photos are all taken by me from the TV screen when I was watching the documentary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It wasn’t Bertie alone who filmed the section. Silverback Films <\/a>were up on the roof too. I had met them a week earlier when they had come for a recce of the site. The director, camerman, boom operator and researcher, Tom, who had first contacted me. Thanks guys…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    In July 2025, I invited National Geographic filmmaker, Bertie Gregory, to the rooftop garden I created and maintain for wild bees on Bow Bells House. He was looking for a central London location to film bees for his Secrets of the Bees documentary. Three years in the making, and shot around the world, he wanted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\nSecrets of the Bees - filming on Bow Bells House - Urban Bees Website<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.urbanbees.co.uk\/blog_1\/?p=4848\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Secrets of the Bees - filming on Bow Bells House - Urban Bees Website\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In July 2025, I invited National Geographic filmmaker, Bertie Gregory, to the rooftop garden I created and maintain for wild bees on Bow Bells House. 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