Mancunians invited to adopt a Printworks bee to raise funds for local charities

Manchester’s mad about bees.

Now the Printworks is offering the people of Manchester a chance to adopt their very own bee in order to raise funds for two local charities – The Booth Centre and Forever Manchester.

The Printworks bees have provided a bumper yield of honey from the four beehives on the roof with some of the best honey to date.

As part of the #LiveFromTheHive project, a collaboration between The Printworks and Hard Rock Cafe, the honey has been extracted and bottled to sell to the public.

All the money raised from the £10 jars of limited edition honey goes to The Booth Centre and Forever Manchester.

The first batch of honey which had bespoke labels designed by Mancsy sold out in a week back in 2014.  Jars signed by the Manchester artist sold for as much as £75.

The 2015 yield was just as popular and the project has managed to raise over £2,000 to date for the two charities and another sell-out year is expected.

“Bees are amongst the most important creatures to humans on earth,” says The Printworks’ beekeeper Adrian Rhodes.

“These amazing insects pollinate over 80% of all flowering plants including 70 of the top 100 human food crops. One in three bites of the food that we eat is derived from plants pollinated by bees.”

The Printworks rooftop garden is home to 20 species of fruit and vegetables, creepy-crawlies and fauna. Over the past three years it has grown everything from lettuce to strawberries, beetroot to potatoes, and mint to radish, and even boasts a beetle hotel.

​T​he scheme recently received a Green Apple award for its environmental commitment. The accolade recognises, rewards and promotes environmental best practice around the world.

It costs just £1 to adopt one of the 60,000 bees – so it’s cheaper than adopting a snow leopard or a polar bear – and you don’t need any previous experience of adopting an insect. You won’t be able to take your bee home but you will be able to name it and have your name placed on a commemorative board in The Printworks’ pumpyard.

“The bee is an iconic symbol in Manchester so we wanted to give people the chance of owning their own, whilst raising money for some special causes,” said Printworks director Fred Booth.