Beekeepers Association buzzing after being awarded Lottery grant

Penrith Beekeepers Association have recently been awarded a grant of £960 from the Pride in Penrith Lottery to enable them to set up an association apiary (also known as a Bee yard) just outside of Penrith to provide shelter for beehives and allow groups of beekeepers to keep an eye on them.

Bee colonies are currently in decline and the association hope to combat this with their new apiary, which will help them to promote the support of bee colonies, raise people’s awareness of how the community can help and encourage more people to take up the craft of beekeeping. It will allow them to link in with different organisations and colleges such as Newton Rigg, in order to provide training and support for those interested in beekeeping.

Dr Margaret Riches, Treasurer of the Penrith Beekeepers Association, comments:

“The grant from the Pride in Penrith Lottery has been so essential to our cause, allowing us to take another step towards the completion of our apiary. Through the building of this new environment for our beehives we hope to provide educational and training programmes which will enable us to combat the decline in bee colonies and see the population thriving once again in the area; as well as an increase in the numbers of people taking up the craft of beekeeping.”

The Pride in Penrith Lottery is a not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers from the town, who are all passionate about making a difference to the local area and raising money for local initiatives. The Pride in Penrith Lottery is only sustainable with people signing up as members.

For less than £2 a week money from members helps to contribute to various good causes, events, and projects and help to make Penrith a better place. It is really easy to join the Pride in Penrith Lottery. People can visit the Lottery website and sign up online, or fill out one of the forms which can be found in local shops and through the sales agents (Maggie’s Bakery, The Wine House of Penrith, Booths, Angel Lane Chippy, Sandgate Friary and Town Head Chip shop.