Volunteer Robert Jones helping the kids out!

Subt update

Hello everyone

Its been a really interesting week down here in Kent. Last Tuesday I went into St. Michael's primary school in Playden and taught a one hour lesson on bumblebees which was really good fun. We first had a chat about bees and what they already knew and I was shocked at how much they did- 6 legs and 4 wings! I then talked about bumblebees conservation and importance, the class then drew some lovely pictures, completed a word search and spot the difference. At the end of the lesson we did a quiz on what we had learned and the kids did brilliantly- so many thanks to the primary school for inviting me along. I'm more than happy to go into primary schools and give a lesson, so do let me know if you know of anyone who will be interested!

I gave a talk at Tunbridge Wells museum on Wednesday night which was great. I have known Ian Beavis at the museum for quite a while now as we worked together on ants before! I'll be doing a few more talks this autumn for local groups before heading to New Zealand in November. Last weekend I travelled to Liverpool for the annual BWARS (bees, wasps and ants recording society) conference. This attracts local amateur insect recorders to go through any unidentified specimens they may have and talk about their work and findings. Its an excellent organisation which have been monitoring bees, wasps and ants distribution and range over many decades.

All the best and until next time......

Tripled land creatation target!

Hello everyone

Well it looks like summer is over now but still plenty of things to do on the subt project! Hopefully some of you saw our press release last Monday. I did a talk at the British Science Festival last week, the British Ecological Society had invited me and they very kindly organised a press conference for us. The response has been brilliant we got into all the broadsheets and Daily Mail (articles can still be found on all their web pages). We also have articles in the New Scientist, The Ecologist and The Economist this week so do give them a look if you have time! If your in New Zealand we are in the New Zealand Geographic this month and Cosmos magazine in Australia. So a big thank you to Becky at BES for organising the whole thing.

We are very excited about the projects progression as we have found a breeding methodology for the bees which can take place in New Zealand and we have news that we have also tripled our land conversion target. Originally we wanted 10km2 around the release site to contain 0.2ha in each 1km2, well, we are now over 30km2 and the amount is still raising so many thanks to all the farmers, land owners and conservation groups for their support!

So next week I am teaching a lesson at St. Michaels primary school on bumblebees. I am giving a one hour talk at Tunbridge Wells museum on Wednesday night (get in touch with the museum if you want to come along!). Very interestingly a person called William got in touch with me to say one of is relatives was responsible for transporting the bumblebees to New Zealand and he still has all the correspondence!! Its stored at a records office so within the next couple of weeks I'm going to pop up and have a visit.... watch this space

Till next time Nikki