Wilder’s bee bins

Over the next year, Wilder will be upcycling disused metal bins to provide habitat for bees. The Wilder bee bin project champions UK species that are in decline.

Tate have donated unused black metal bins to Wilder: each bin Wilder upcycles and plants up will provide forage for a rare bee. We are developing this project with the help of Buglife. Our first bin focuses on the shrill carder bee (Bombus sylvarum), one of the UK’s rarest bumblebees.

Shrill carder bees – named for their high-pitched buzz – have long tongues, so they favour tubular flowers. Forage plants for the bee include black horehound, white dead-nettle, hedge woundwort and legumes including meadow vetchling, red clover and birds-foot trefoil. The bees nest in tussocky grass and dense vegetation. As it is a late emerging species, the shrill carder bee needs forage into late September to ensure new queens are reared.

Our first bin provides a mini habitat for this beautiful creature, and featured in the Chelsea Fringe programme. You’ll find it outside Audrey’s, 1 Flat Iron Square, London SE1 0AB.

We are planning to grow this project and plant up ten more bins around the Wilder Mile. If you’d like to sponsor a bee bin, drop us a line.

What about honey bees?
’There is growing evidence that honeybees can pose a threat to wild pollinators. A hive can support 30–40,000 honeybees in the summer. By increasing the number of individual bees in an area you also increase the competition for flower resources, and this puts pressure on wild bee populations.’ Buglife