Volunteers keeping buzzy with new community centre beehives

A chapel-turned-community centre has turned its garden space into a community wellbeing area, with three new bee hives and a space to grow vegetables.

Libanus Lifestyle, in Blackwood, received more than £4,700 of funding to install the hives on the chapel roof and invest in professional beekeeping equipment and training.

One of the hives is a ‘flow hive’, which allows honey to be extracted by turning a knob, reducing the stress on the bees, which are not disturbed during the process.

Volunteer beekeepers will be trained by Lorne East, founder of the Sirhowy Valley Honeybee Company, with the aim of making the project self-sustaining.

In time, it is hoped the project will see Libanus Lifestyle, which is a community interest company, produce its own brand of honey.

Karen James, Director of Libanus Lifestyle, said she was delighted to be working with Mr East as part of the project, and said the bees had received a “warm welcome” from the community.

Mrs James added: “We would like to thank Phill Loveless for the help and support that he has offered along with gifting another hive, suit and smoker to the project.

“We feel we have the potential to go from strength to strength”.

The funding for the project has come through the Caerphilly, Torfaen and Monmouthshire Food4Growth programme, which aims to increase the amount of food produced locally.

The programme is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.

One of the bee hives was donated to the project by the council’s Cwm a Mynydd Rural Development Programme, which is funded through the European Agricultural Fund.

Alongside vegetable growing and bee hives, the garden also has places for members of the community to sit, relax and even do some gardening.