A group of budding young beekeepers have helped install the first two of 14 beehives for a wildlife site created as part of the building of the HS2 high speed rail line.
The Northamptonshire school kids, from The Radstone Primary School, helped install the hives as part of a unique partnership with the Great British Bee Project (GBBP).
It is designed to expand populations of the endangered British Black Bee – Britain’s only native bee species. To mark the occasion the kids named the queen bee “Lillibee’ as a tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II.
The youthful bee enthusiasts’ Assistant Head Teacher, Sophie Matthews, said: “The children thoroughly enjoyed their visit to the conservation site and loved learning about the bees and the environment right on their doorstep.”
“The children have been inspired by their morning and we now have a few budding ecologists on our hands.”
The HS2 wildlife site is part of HS2’s Green Corridor, which is producing new green spaces for wildlife and the local community along the railway.
Over 170 hectares have already been created on the section of HS2 from the Chiltern Tunnel in Buckinghamshire to Long Itchington Wood Tunnel in Warwickshire.