Keen gardener and Managing Director of Preston based Sector Security Services – Margaret Wilson, recently read about the devastating plight of the honey bees, as millions of colonies of wild (or feral) honey bees have been wiped out by urbanisation, pesticides, and parasitic mites. She decided to do something about it.
At the age of 70, she has experienced and seen many things in life, but the decline of the honey bee moved her to commit space on the roof of the Sector Security Services office buildings on Blackpool Road to establishing a colony of hives. Plants and fauna pots have been positioned and Margaret has already successfully established the ‘Queen’ bee and a colony. It’s not only Margaret who has shown interest in the project, many of the staff have taken great interest and offered support in caring for the honey bees – who knows, this may also be seen as ‘team building” within the business!
Margaret said: “Everybody loves the countryside, the beautiful flowers and fauna and when it comes to loss of the green belt areas, pollution of crops and rivers through pesticides, etc many people would veraciously criticise the unnecessary destruction, but that’s about it! Having come up from the ‘old school’ in which I have had to graft for everything and build a manned security guarding company (that are often lead by predominant male executives) I am making time to give something back to our county and town – Preston. Whether my interest in honey bees is because of the empathy and appreciation I have for the way they are focused on the security and protection of their colony, I’m not too sure. I just know that I want my grandchildren and everyone else to be able to enjoy the beauty of the countryside and flowers, plus enjoy the sweet taste of pure honey that can offer so many health benefits if taken. The facts that keeping a hive in the backyard or on the roof in our case dramatically improves pollination and rewards you with a delicious honey harvest are by themselves good enough reasons to keep bees. But today, the value of keeping bees goes beyond the obvious. Bees are what is known as a keystone species, ensuring the continued reproduction and survival not only of plants but other organisms that depend on those plants for survival. Once a keystone species disappears, other species begin to disappear too. So Sector Security Services is doing something about protecting our environment and our future.”
