Occupying two hives, the Sandvik colony was established in 2017 in co-operation with the Peter-August-Böckstiegel-Gesamtschule and now exceeds 100,000 bees which produce enough honey to be given to customers visiting Sandvik.  

The project began with Thomas Froböse of Sandvik and Matthias Wach who, along with his school pupils, was already working on a gardening project, this was extended to include the Sandvik car park. All of the 300m² of the new car park was transformed with new flowers and perennial herbs that were bee and insect friendly and later the hives were added. The bee hives are looked after by experienced bee keeper Wach and his pupils.

Haydn Eagle, sales & marketing director at Sandvik High Precision Tube, says: “There has been a much publicised decline in the bee population in recent years which in turn has a damaging effect on the whole ecology system due to the lack of pollination. Much of this has been caused by fewer wildflower-rich habitats and the increased use of pesticides, which are very harmful to bees.

“Creating and preserving a sustainable environment is part of our philosophy here at Sandvik and we thought that working with the local school to create a suitable environment for the bees to flourish would go some way to helping  the bee population.”