Big buzz about new 'bee hotel' at Hampton Sainsbury's

Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has built a new “bee hotel” on the roof of its Tangley Park store - one of 38 in London erected to try and help increase the dwindling honey bee population.

Robin Dean, who has been recruited to look after the hotels and is the first ever supermarket bee keeper, said: "Bees are the unsung hero of the food chain, as most fresh fruit and veg depends on bees for pollination.

“This is groundbreaking work by Sainsbury's.

“We hope that by setting these bee hotels up at a network of stores across the city, we'll be able to help rejuvenate the bee population in Hampton and learn more about why the population has decreased so dramatically over the past few years."

The hotel is designed to attract solitary bees, less likely to sting, and offer an ideal habitat for bees to raise larvae, which will be collected by Robin and incubated until they are ready to be placed back into the hotel to hatch.

It could hold several thousand bees but it is expected a few hundred will be on site at any one time from early spring until the end of this month.

Store manager Patrick Higgins said: “We are passionate about supporting the local environment and everyone at the store is keen to support this project.

“We are proud to do our bit to boost the bee population in the Hampton area.

“We’d also like to reassure customers that the bees that will take up residence in the hotels are solitary bees, which are very docile and are therefore very unlikely to sting.”

There has been a mixed reaction from shoppers.

Clare King, 58, of Hampton Park Road, said: “I am absolutely delighted to hear about it. I try to attract some in my garden, I think we need more.

“I certainly do not have an issue with the hotel being here, they should be built anywhere where there is a problem.”

But Derick Turner, from Hampton, said: “No thanks, not for me. We have enough pests about, there is no need to attract more.”