How Hives Helping Heroes Works

How It Works

The key to Hives Helping Heroes is one hero, one mentor, and thousands of bees.  With this in mind, we believe that anything is possible, including discovering a lifelong hobby of beekeeping and increasing the bee population in local communities.

A mentor is an individual with 2 or more years of successful beekeeping experience, and a desire to pass on their beekeeping knowledge and skills to our nation's heroes.

A hero is a veteran or emergency worker in the Hives Helping Heroes programme that is interested in beekeeping.  

Each hero will be matched with a local area beekeeping mentor and work with them on a one-to-one basis with the mentor’s own hives.  The beekeeping clubs involved in the programme will provide the mentor and schedule a meeting with the hero and mentor so that there is a warm hand over. 

After a period of working with the mentor of at least 6 months, the hero will be able to have their own hive, should they choose to. They will have the opportunity to build and paint their hive boxes with assistance from the mentor and host club using materials kindly donated to the programme. The queen and brood for the hero's hive will need to be sourced externally from the programme, however, the beekeeping clubs involved  will endeavour to assist where possible.

Flow have generously donated a number of bee suits and veils for our heroes. These suits and veils were flood damaged and while they are not up to the high standard of Flow equipment, they have been thoroughly cleaned and are a most welcome start for each hero.

For insurance purposes, all heroes must become a member of their beekeeping club. We understand that not all heroes will choose to own a hive or they may prefer to have native bees, both of which will be accommodated in the programme.

The Hives Helping Heroes program is not to be considered as an answer to heroes suffering from mental illness, but merely a tool that could be beneficial to some. We set no bounds or limitations and encourage all to try, but we understand that not all heroes will have this ability or desire. Participants who don’t want to proceed with the programme can opt out at any time. The beekeeping clubs involved in the program will retain the right to determine the suitability of a hero or mentor for the programme and if needed cease any individual’s participation in it.

We see our role as providing some hope and direction to our heroes as they try to re-establish themselves back into the community.