The Birds and the Bees

Published on Mon 16 Aug 2010

The Birds and the Bees

If you’re stuck for a project for the Summer, then why not give in to one of your more noble primal urges and domesticate some animals. It’s good to see that man’s instincts to provide shelter for animals and help to preserve the environment.

1. Bees

Einstein famously said that ‘If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.’ It may not be entirely true but we do rely on bees more than many might suppose and not just for something to spread on our toast. Bee populations are collapsing around the world, threatening crops and the wider economy. This may be down to the ubiquitous mobile phone, the signals from which are thought to disorientate bees. But we can do our bit, and we don’t need to go the whole hog with beehives and beekeeping outfits either.  The people at omlet.co.uk have come up with an urban ‘beehaus’ that can be bought for a few hundred quid and installed in your garden or on your roof.

2. Chickens

Another product from the people at omlet is the one with which they made their name.
Developed by four RCA students for their degree show in 2003, it was marketed to enormous acclaim in 2004 and has currently sold over 25 million units. Its appeal is clearly to design conscious urbanites who want a link back to nature to go with their fresh eggs. People who want to be a bit like Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, but nearer the shops.   

3. Beetles

Not cuddly, not attractive, don’t provide us with anything we can eat and hate being petted, stag beetles nevertheless are a protected species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and perform an essential function in recycling rotting wood. They are the perfect project for any budding but lazy environmentalist this Summer because their ideal habitat is wood left to rot on the ground.  

4. Worms

Worms can be gainfully employed converting all sorts of waste into something a bit more useful, including garden waste, kitchen scraps and even dog poo. The aptly named wormsdirect.co.uk provides a range of products and their inhabitants that aren’t likely to win any design awards but which do help you to convert waste into useful material, and may even allow you to make a few quid with one of their small commercial units.

5. Squirrels

People like squirrels in spite of some wag’s description of them as ‘rats with good PR’. We might not encourage grey squirrels to take up any more homes than they already have. Red squirrels are a different matter entirely and need all the help they can get to establish new places to live. It’s not necessarily the sort of thing that is easy to do in the garden, but groups such as Save Our Squirrels and organisations such as the Forestry Commission offer plenty of advice on how to get involved in creating and preserving their habitats.

6. Birds

You don’t have to be a twitcher to enjoy encouraging birds to visit your garden. But you can still take account of providing habitats for birds that are a bit rarer than others. One surprisingly rare bird you might want to give a helping hand to with a special nesting box is the once humble and commonplace sparrow which has experienced a dramatic fall in numbers in recent years and has all but disappeared from many places.

7. Bats

Another creature in need of an image makeover is the bat. Not interested in drinking your blood, unlikely to get stuck in your hair or up your nightshirt (as if you wear one), bats are protected almost everywhere in the UK and organisations such as the Bat Conservation Trust are encouraging people to conserve them either by not disturbing their habitats, reporting on their numbers or even creating bat-friendly environments in suitable locations or with bat boxes.