 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(January 2024) |
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline .(January 2024) |
Nicola Reed | |
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| Nationality | British and Maltese |
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| Spouse | James Reed |
Nicola Reed is a beekeeper, artist, teacher, entrepreneur and philanthropist from Wiltshire.
Reed holds a Master's degree in Fine Art from St Martin's School of Art, [1] a PGDip from Chelsea College of Arts and a teaching degree from University College London.[ citation needed ]
Reed began beekeeping as a hobby in 2013, after taking over a hive that had been gifted to her husband for his birthday. [2] As of 2022, her hives house over 320,000 bees.
Reed is a media commentator on beekeeping and the decline of the UK bee population. In a 2018 article for The Times newspaper, she attributed the decline in bee numbers to a loss of wildflowers resulting from urban sprawl and the use of bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. She also expressed support for legal action against the UK Government to suspend its use of thiamethoxam, a pesticide used on sugar beet crops that is thought to kill bees. [3] Reed has also attributed the decline in bee numbers to the varroa mite, following its spread to the UK in 2003. [4] She recommends organic produc e over mass agricultural produce that relies heavily on bee-killing pesticides, and advocates that households increase the bee population by planting bee-friendly wildflowers, letting lawns grow, providing bee hotels, and hanging baskets. [4] [5]
She adopts the beekeeping technique advocated by Bill Anderson of The Idler , which involves collecting only small quantities of honey during periods of surplus. [6]
According to a report by the Financial Times in June 2022, Reed plans to establish a beekeeping school in the grounds of her home in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. [6]
She is ambassador for the bee-keeping charity Bees for Development, which helps some of the world's poorest communities alleviate poverty through beekeeping. [2]
Reed is founder and creative director of Beeble, a honey spirits business. [1] [7]
Reed is a trustee of Big Give, an online resource that enables charity donors to find and support charities projects in their field of interest. [8] The Big Give has raised over £280m for thousands of charity projects, including over £3.67m for the Disasters Emergency Committee's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, £5.5 million for COVID-19 relief efforts, £4.3m for environmental causes via the Green Match Fund and over £2m for the Grenfell Tower fire appeal. [9] [10] The organisation is one of the UK's largest philanthropic endeavours, with a target of raising £1bn by 2030. The Reed family are among its principal donors. [11]
Reed is a former trustee of Ethiopiaid, a Reed family charity working to relieve poverty and sickness in Ethiopia. [12]
Reed is the founder of the Reed Short Film Awards, [13] an annual film competition to recognize and celebrate the art of short films. The competition was open to emerging filmmakers from around the world, with entries in various genres including drama, comedy, documentary, and animation.
Competition partners included BAFTA, Channel Four, the British Council, Total Film and Creative England. Winning films were selected by a panel of judges, including film industry professionals such as Jaime Winstone, Eugene Simon, Stuart Cosgrove, Roger Chapman and Paul Weiland. [14] [15] [16]
The winners received a £10,000 cash prize. Their films were showcased at film festivals and screenings worldwide. [17]
The competition ran from 2010 to 2016. [18]
Reed is a book illustrator, photographer and painter.
Her animated projection work, The Busy Bee Has No Time for Sorrow, was shown at the Mdina Biennale, Malta in 2020. [19]
Her work as a book illustrator includes Fox by Anthony Gardener [20] and Froth and Bubble by Bill Keeling.
Reed has tutored fine art on the UAL Camberwell Chelsea Wimbledon Foundation and at the University of Gloucestershire. She has led drawing workshops at the University of Malta, Chelsea College of Arts, The Idler Magazine and The Connection in Piccadilly. [21]
Reed grew up in Edinburgh. She now lives in Wiltshire and Notting Hill with her husband James. The couple have six children. [1]
A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes nest from hive. Nest is used to discuss colonies that house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and exposed. The term hive is used to describe an artificial/man-made structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of Apis live in colonies. But for honey production, the western honey bee and the eastern honey bee are the main species kept in hives.
Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax, propolis, bee pollen, and royal jelly. Other sources of beekeeping income include pollination of crops, raising queens, and production of package bees for sale. Bee hives are kept in an apiary or "bee yard".
An apiary is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to a hobbyist's hives or those used for commercial or educational usage. It can also be a wall-less, roofed structure, similar to a gazebo which houses hives, or an enclosed structure with an opening that directs the flight path of the bees.
The European dark bee is a subspecies of the western honey bee, evolving in central Asia, with a proposed origin of the Tien Shan Mountains and later migrating into eastern and then northern Europe after the last ice age from 9,000BC onwards. Its original range included the southern Urals in Russia and stretched through northern Europe and down to the Pyrenees. They are one of the two members of the 'M' lineage of Apis mellifera, the other being in western China. Traditionally they were called the Black German Bee, although they are now considered endangered in Germany. However today they are more likely to be called after the geographic / political region in which they live such as the British Black Bee, the Native Irish Honey Bee, the Cornish Black Bee and the Nordic Brown Bee, even though they are all the same subspecies, with the word "native" often inserted by local beekeepers, even in places where the bee is an introduced foreign species. It was domesticated in Europe and hives were brought to North America in the colonial era in 1622 where they were referred to as the English Fly by the Native Americans.
The Caucasian honey bee is a subspecies of the western honey bee.
James Andrew Reed, FCIPD is a British businessman. He is chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Reed group of companies. He is the son of Sir Alec Reed, who founded the company in 1960. He is chairman of The Big Give Trust, a match-funding charity supported in part by the Reed Foundation and the Reed family. The Big Give has raised over £280 million for UK-registered charities and aims to raise £1 billion by 2030.
Fluvalinate is a synthetic pyrethroid chemical compound contained as an active agent in the products Apistan, Klartan, and Minadox, that is an acaricide, commonly used to control Varroa mites in honey bee colonies, infestations that constitute a significant disease of such insects.
Commercial Beekeeping in the United States dates back to the 1860s.
Beekeeping in New Zealand is reported to have commenced in 1839 with the importing of two skep hives by Mary Bumby, a missionary. It has since become an established industry as well a hobby activity.
Colony collapse disorder (CCD) is an abnormal phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a honey bee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While such disappearances have occurred sporadically throughout the history of apiculture, and have been known by various names, the syndrome was renamed colony collapse disorder in early 2007 in conjunction with a drastic rise in reports of disappearances of western honey bee colonies in North America. Beekeepers in most European countries had observed a similar phenomenon since 1998, especially in Southern and Western Europe; the Northern Ireland Assembly received reports of a decline greater than 50%. The phenomenon became more global when it affected some Asian and African countries as well.
Beekeeping is first recorded in Ireland in the seventh century. It has seen a surge in popularity in modern times, with the membership of beekeeping associations exceeding 4,500. The median average number of hives per beekeeper is three hives, while the average honey output per hive is 11.4 kg. The growth in the practice has occurred despite increased pressures on bees and beekeepers due to parasites, diseases and habitat loss.
Beekeeping in the United Kingdom is the maintenance of bee colonies by humans within the United Kingdom. It is a significant commercial activity that provides those involved with honey, beeswax, royal jelly, queen bees, propolis, flower pollen and bee pollen. Honeybees also provide pollination services to orchards and a variety of seed crops.
Beekeeping in Ukraine is a major economic activity. Approximately 700,000 people, 1.5% of the Ukrainian population, are engaged in the production of honey. Ukraine is ranked as the number one country in Europe and among the top five countries in the world for honey production, producing 75 million metric tons annually. Ukraine produces the greatest quantity of honey per capita in the world.
Bees for Development is an international charity working to alleviate poverty through beekeeping. Beekeeping contributes to supporting sustainable livelihoods in poor and remote communities; honey bees provide an essential ecosystem service. Bees for Development currently runs projects in Uganda, Zanzibar, Ethiopia and Kyrgyzstan. Its offices are in Monmouth, South Wales.
Urban beekeeping is the practice of keeping bee colonies (hives) in towns and cities. It is also referred to as hobby beekeeping or backyard beekeeping. Bees from city apiaries are said to be "healthier and more productive than their country cousins". As pollinators, bees also provide environmental and economic benefits to cities. They are essential in the growth of crops and flowers.
Wax foundation or honeycomb base is a plate made of wax forming the base of one honeycomb. It is used in beekeeping to give the bees a foundation on which they can build the honeycomb. Wax foundation is considered one of the most important inventions in modern beekeeping.
Beekeeping in Australia is a commercial industry with around 25,000 registered beekeepers owning over 670,000 hives in 2018. Most are found in the eastern states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania as well as the south-west of Western Australia.
Honey bee starvation is a problem for bees and beekeepers. Starvation may be caused by unfavorable weather, disease, long distance transportation or depleting food reserve. Over-harvesting of honey is the foremost cause for scarcity as bees are not left with enough of a honey store, though weather, disease, and disturbance can also cause problems. Backyard beekeepers face more colony losses in the winter than in the summer, but for commercial beekeepers there is not much variation in loss by season. Starvation may be avoided by effective monitoring of hives and disease prevention measures. Starvation can amplify the toxic effect of pesticides bees are exposed to.
Savannah Bee Company is an American company based in Savannah, Georgia and founded by Ted Dennard in 2002. The company sells honey-related products and books, beauty products, beverages, and candles. The Savannah Bee Company has 15 locations in the United States.
The British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales that was founded in 1874. It is made up of 75 associations in England & Wales plus one in Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Jersey. At end of 2018 there were 26,555 members. Its patrons include the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers and Jimmy Doherty.
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