Bee Campaign Honeybees are in crisis. Diseases, pesticides, intensive farming, climate change and poor nutrition have all been blamed for the steep fall in numbers – down by half in the UK in the last 25 years. It’s crucial to find out why, for honeybees are vital to our survival. They pollinate a third of our own food and around 90 per cent of plants that feed birds and animals. Other important insect pollinators such as butterflies,bumblebees, moths and hoverflies – essential for healthy biodiversity – are also disappearing at an alarming rate. That’s why the WI launched the SOS for Honeybees campaign in 2009, after Hindon & Fonthill Bishop WI’s successful AGM resolution called for more funding for bee health. Local people rolled up their sleeves to help Whitley WI members in Cheshire hack through chest-high nettles to clear a large copse for a village bee garden. A year on, it hums with bees. WI President and Bee Ambassador Sue Abbott hosted a fund-raising Bee Tea to launch the project, while fellow member Celia Forsberg approached the council for a suitable piece of land. Sue Beesley, the BBC Gardener of the Decade, who runs a local nursery, helped with the groundwork, guided us with the planning and planting, gave fertiliser and plants and lots more at a discount. ‘Specimen Trees in Cheshire also made generous donations of shrubs.Sue Beesley was guest of honour at the garden’s official opening in July. Whitley Primary School pupils made bunting decorated with bees and village Rose Queen Olivia Monaghan, 10, planted a rambling rose. Guests enjoyed WI honey cakes. The bees did their bit, too - the buddleia and lavender were coming into bloom and they were all over them.