News and events

Scotland - 9th August 2-4pm. Hunt for bumblebees on Stirling University's beautiful campus. Meet outside the MacRobert Centre. Spaces are limited so please email to book a place.

Southern England - 5th August 2-4pm. At Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire. Please email to reserve your place

Eastern England - 8th August - time to be confirmed. Catfield Church, Norfolk. Learn about wildflowers, butterflies and bumblebees. Please email  to reserve your place

Western Isles - 8th August 2-4pm. Enjoy some of the UK's rarest bumblebees in pristine S. Uist machair with local expert Bill Neil. Meet at the Studio Gallery, Askernish. Places are limited so please contact Bill in advance on

Midlands - 5th August 2pm - 4pm. Hunt for bumblebees in the University of Leicester Botanic Garden with local expert Maggie Frankum. Please email Maggie at for more information and to reserve your place.

W. Scotland (Glencoe area) – 29th July & 12th August 1pm onwards. Search for the rare Blaeberry bumblebee and Moss Carder bumblebee with Emma Heskey – more information from

Southern England, High Wycombe Environment Centre – 19th August 3pm onwards. Learn how to identify bumblebees with local expert Clive Hill. Places limited to please email to book your place.

London and the South East – Buglife are co-ordinating a number of bumblebee ID days throughout July and August as part of their ‘All of a buzz in the Thames gateway’ project, and we’re keen not to duplicate efforts – so if you live in this area then see the Buglife website…

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SNH have kindly funded a (£17,000) project to help the Great Yellow Bumblebee (B. distinguendus). We're producing 400 interactive schools packs for P2-3 children. These packs provide all of the resources and information necessary for 3 exciting lessons, which are integrated into the national curriculum. They've been trialled (and very well received) at a number of schools throughout Scotland, and the final packs are in production. Any interested teachers from Scottish schools, please contact us.

We've also produced information leaflets and posters for farmers and crofters, which will be widely distributed in GYBB strongholds. We hope to help improve the management in these areas, for the benefit of GYBB. 

Plans for our own demonstration wildlife garden (at the University of Stirling) are taking shape. We're hoping to create a beautiful cottage garden, using traditional garden plants and wildflowers, which will be a haven for bumblebees.

In addition, we are developing a wildlife garden site at Johnston Terrace in the centre of Edinburgh, in partnership with the Scottish Wildlife Trust

We are delighted to welcome Bridget England and Lucie Southern to the trust. They have taken up full-time positions as Senior Conservation Officer and Conservation Officer respectively. We are very pleased to have them on board, and wish them every success in all that they do.

BBCT are pleased to announce that we have been granted charity status (). We had previously been operating as a not-for-profit company while the paperwork was processed. If you haven't already - pleased print and post a gift-aid form.

NEW! We are searching for Reserve Founders. Thanks to the amazing support that we have already received, we are now in a position to consider buying or managing our first nature reserve. We are going to need help to raise the extra funds to do this. To find out how you can become a Reserve Founder, or to support our Reserve Appeal - click here

We are delighted to announce that we have just been awarded two major grants to help kick-start our conservation efforts. The £50,000 and £28,000 grants come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Biodiversity Action Grants Scheme (which is jointly supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Executive) respectively. We are enormously grateful to these organisations and look forward to the important work ahead.

2006