Co-Treetment

Update from the field | Looking Good! Trees and Bees | 17th November 2024 Another Sunday and the weather was looking good, so Darrell Taylor and I headed off to the Co-Treetment field near Thringstone in Leicestershire. As everyone knows we really do take pride in maintaining our mini-forest, formerly known as a field! So now with 4,500 trees residing in the ground at our land, around 55% of our 1.07 hectares are full now, so we have room for around another 4,250 trees, or thereabouts. We are already looking at the layout of the land to fathom where to plant next; where to leave access corridors and how we work around the bee hives to ensure easy access, and to not disturb them. We were blown away to see what had happened since we began planting 4 years ago. Some trees sit at 6 metres (20ft) high in the trentbarton area; and there's a graduated step down as we move towards the gate that reflects the years of planting and the subsequent tree growth. We set about tidying up; focusing on checking the bee hives; the posts we had dividing the land; plaques and changing the tree guards on around 200 trees from black to clear. We had noticed a poor return on planting when using the black tree guards, our hypothesis being that the tree sees less light and heat in their crucial early growing days which stunts their growth. Of course none of our work is possible without our customers, and whilst some might only buy a few, some of our customers, individuals and businesses buy 100's of trees. Irrespective of the numbers purchased we do maintain the field for all trees so that the forest can remain as a lasting legacy for the future. We currently 9 area plots where there are batches of 100 trees or more belonging to single purchasers. The plots that we marked out during this time were:- AMG Wealth, Senior Partner Practice of St. James’s Place BOAL Extrusion UK Cosy Direct Dynomite Video Production Agency EmailOctopus P. Ducker Systems Ltd Rolls-Royce Simon Crane trentbarton We have of course a lot of trees planted, in fact it is 756 now, that support the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre, which are dispersed amongst the various customer allocations. This is a tremendous number of trees that have so far helped to provide funds for 8 children to go to the holiday home in Skegness. Thanks again to each and every one of our customers, you make us what we are today; we will continue to be add more plaques as more customers purchase trees and reach the 100 mark! If you'd like to join our growing customer list then please feel free to visit our online shop - link shared below:- https://lnkd.in/ehSpDp6y Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox #carbonneutral #carbonnegative #environment #energy #solarenergy #water #change #team #onlyoneearth #sustainable #work #sustainabledevelopment #community #environment #future #trees #society #NFP #carbonemissions #sustainabilitymatters #planetbeforeprofit

Ally Post UGANDA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATIONISTS ORGANIZATION | 29th November 2024 Good morning all from a cold winters day in Derbyshire. As you know Co-Treetment have an alliance with our friends in Uganda, namely Mugogo Mark and Kisaamo Emmanuel Solomon who we support via our knowledge exchange. As fellow beekeepers with David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell we loved their post today which explains the importance of not only bees, but also other pollinators. In the reshared post below you’ll see great information about the topics mentioned. If you’d like to see what a difference our allies are making then take a look at our website link below https://lnkd.in/egkd3PXt Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox #beesmeanhives #planetbeforeprofit #charity #trees #knowledgesharing

Part 14 - Update On Bees | David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell | 22nd November 2024 As our followers know, and have seen, at Co-Treetment we have been developing the apiary through 2024 with the help of David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell and Lisa McKenzie. We have posted a whole series of details relating to this, which we have captured below. Recently whilst the Co-Treetment team were up at the field, our Duke of Edinburgh student asked us about the bees. He was intrigued by the hives and wondered whether bees hibernate. We wondered if any of our followers wondered the same thing? What are the bees up to during winter? Well thanks to David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell we have been able to provide details based from his latest newsletter on the topic. As we say, everyday is a school day! Back in Autumn, we learnt that the Drone bees (males) were being ejected from the hives. The Queens were slowing down their egg laying and pollen is being stored. Gathering honey as a crop has ceased but the colonies continue to find nectar from the dwindling natural sources. And now we are in winter, and it's cold folk remember the question; "what do bees do in the winter...hibernate?" Well kinda. It is called Diapause. Diapause is a period of dormancy when the bodily activities slow down or stop. It is a genetically determined response to unfavourable environmental conditions, such as shorter days, colder temperatures or even lack of food. As the temperature drops, the bees huddle together to keep warm, beekeepers call it clustering. As the temperature drops further, the bees cluster tighter and tighter. There is a point at which the cluster can no long keep warm so they slow down their bodily activities. It is like hibernating except, as soon as the temperature rises, the bees become reanimated. It might only be warm enough to mooch around the hive or even warm enough to fly. Bees are programmed to fly when they can. It is entirely possible to have bees flying on Christmas day. David had picked the bee in the image attached, off the floor at an apiary. She was a bit wet and very cold. After a few minutes sitting on my finger she was warm enough to fly home. She obviously thought it was warm enough to venture out but the damp air cooled her. Like us, there is a point where her muscles are too cold to work. For more specifics about David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell please use the link provided here for his newsletter; he is without doubt an expert on bees, who is willing to share and help. https://lnkd.in/e2N6kVSv Thanks to everyone for your support. Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell #bees #planetbeforeprofit

Part 13 - Update On Bees | David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell | 24th September 2024 As our followers know, and have seen, at Co-Treetment we have been developing the apiary through 2024 with the help of David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell and Lisa McKenzie. We have posted a whole series of details relating to this, which we have captured below. However before you refresh your memories, have you ever wondered what happens as we enter into Autumn? What are the bees up to? Well thanks to David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell we have been able to provide details based from his latest newsletter on the topic. As we say, everyday is a school day! The bees have known the year has been turning for weeks. Drone bees (males) are being ejected from the hives. The Queens are slowing down their egg laying and pollen is being stored. Gathering honey as a crop has ceased but the colonies continue to find nectar from the dwindling natural sources. As the volume of brood diminishes the bees are back fill the space with this late season honey in readiness for the coming winter. We bee farmers are checking the hives to make sure the bees have what they need for the winter. Where colonies have not brought in enough nectar, we will add a feeder on top of the hive containing sugar syrup to make up for what they lack from natural sources. The bees will eat this over the winter and into the spring. Failing to make sure your charges are stocked up will very likely end up as the death of the colony from starvation in the late winter or early spring. For more specifics about David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell please use the link provided here; he is without doubt an expert on bees, who is willing to share and help. https://lnkd.in/eGD4fXrX The 2024 Co-Treetment overview, courtesy of Lisa McKenzie; creating the environment for the bees:- Video 1; On 29th March they installed the apiary, some thing we attached in the post of that time. Video 2; was one with some sad news about bee hive 1 on 25th April. Video 3; 9th May we showed a solution to save our first hive which was in danger of being lost as there wasn't a queen bee. Video 4; 16th May where we were able to see success in the merging of the hives. Video 5; also 16th May - our slow motion special which focussed on the entrance to the hive Video 6; 11 frames for the bees with a dummy board, Video 7; the workers made it look amazing, stunning in fact, but the naughty workers moved the play area! Video 8; we saw something amazing, the queen in amongst many other bees. Video 9; in the middle of the screen we see a young female emerging. Video 10; the worker bees 15 minute journey after de-capping is visible. Video 11; a great look at lots of bees emerging; the cell sizes are different for female and male bees, the male bees (drones) are larger and so leave a larger cell. Thanks to everyone for your support. Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell #bees #planetbeforeprofit

Update from the field | All Looking Good! Trees and Grass and Bees | 19th August 2024 Another Sunday and the weather was looking good, so Darrell Taylor and I headed off to the Co-Treetment field near Thringstone in Leicestershire. We really do take pride in maintaining our mini-forest, formerly known as a field! So now with 4500 trees residing in the ground at our land, around 60% of our 1.07 hectares are full now, so we have room for around another 4000 trees, or thereabouts. We are already looking at the layout of the land to fathom where to plant next; where to leave access corridors and how we work around the bee hives to ensure easy access, and to not disturb them. When we pulled into the field, we really were amazed to see what had happened since we began planting 4 years ago. Some trees sit at 20ft high in the trentbarton area; and there's a graduated step down as we move towards the gate that reflects the years of planting and the subsequent tree growth. We set about tidying up; that means a lot of grass cutting which we do, not because we like tidy fields, but to prevent a reoccurrence of fly-grazing, which we reported on a couple of years back. We also were able to check in with the bees; some photographs of the hives are included in the post; they seem to love life in Thringstone! They're thriving at the moment. Of course none of our work is possible without our customers, and whilst some might only buy a few, some of our customers, individuals and businesses buy 100's of trees. Irrespective of the numbers purchased we do maintain the field for all trees so that the forest can remain as a lasting legacy for the future. We currently 9 area plots where there are batches of 100 trees or more belonging to single purchasers. The plots that we marked out during this time were:- AMG Wealth, Senior Partner Practice of St. James’s Place BOAL Extrusion UK Cosy Direct Dynomite Video Production Agency EmailOctopus P. Ducker Systems Ltd Rolls-Royce Simon Crane trentbarton We have of course a lot of trees planted, in fact it is 735 now, that support the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre, which are dispersed amongst the various customer allocations. This is a tremendous number of trees that have so far helped to provide funds for 8 children to go to the holiday home in Skegness. Thanks again to each and every one of our customers, you make us what we are today; we will continue to be add more plaques as more customers purchase trees and reach the 100 mark! If you'd like to join our growing customer list then please feel free to visit our online shop - link shared below:- https://lnkd.in/ehSpDp6y Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox #carbonneutral #carbonnegative #environment #energy #solarenergy #water #change #team #onlyoneearth #sustainable #work #sustainabledevelopment #community #environment #future #trees #society #NFP #carbonemissions #sustainabilitymatters #planetbeforeprofit

BEES and TREES | Loads of bees | Part 12 | Video 11 | 30th July 2024 After the tremendous response from our followers, and of course bee lovers, we were left with some questions about how we had identified the emerging bee as being female. So we didn't want to disappoint and not answer the questions, hence we are doing so below in the script. Thanks as ever to Lisa for some footage to share and I'll do my best to explain exactly what's happening in this post. Creating the environment for the bees:- Video 1; On 29th March they installed the apiary, some thing we attached in the post of that time. Video 2; was one with some sad news about bee hive 1 on 25th April. Video 3; 9th May we showed a solution to save our first hive which was in danger of being lost as there wasn't a queen bee. So with the aid of newspaper, we were attempting a merge of hive 1 with hive 2. Video 4; 16th May where we were able to see success in the merging of the hives. Video 5; also 16th May - our slow motion special which focussed on the entrance to the hive Video 6; 11 frames for the bees with a dummy board, Video 7; the workers made it look amazing, stunning in fact, but the naughty workers moved the play area! Video 8; we saw something amazing, the queen in amongst many other bees. Video 9; in the middle of the screen we see a young female emerging. Video 10; the worker bees 15 minute journey after de-capping is visible. And so, video 11; a great 1minute 40 second look where we can see (and hear) lots of bees emerging; the cell sizes are different for female and male bees, the male bees (drones) are larger and so leave a larger cell. Lisa kindly zooms in so that in the middle of the screen you can see 'domed' cells - those are the male bees cells. Right next to them are smaller, flatter cells, the female ones. The video goes onto look for male bees (drones), but they are in short supply as the swarming season is drawing to an end, drones are ejected by the female worker bees, and even if they're not ejected, but choose to leave the hive the male bees are not allowed back in. For those wanting to learn more about bees then don't hesitate to contact David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell on the website link https://lnkd.in/eGD4fXrX or Co-Treetment on https://lnkd.in/eqa4BEbX Remember 'Bees Means Hives' 😀 Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell #planetbeforeprofit #bees #beesmeanhives

Update from the field | Equipment Maintenance Day | 26th July 2024 As those that follow us have seen, Co-Treetment we take pride in maintaining our mini-forest, formerly known as a field, in Thringstone, Leicestershire. And as you'll also know we never purchase any new equipment, we recycle equipment that others have used and are about to discard. So we repair rather than renew, a truly sustainable approach to how we want to run our business. On Tuesday afternoon we did a great job of getting the mini-forest into shape, and not only did that take a toll on us, it also did on the tools we were using. In particular our third hand utility sit on mower, took a lot of punishment and hence is having major surgery. Nothing our intrepid Co-Founder Darrell Taylor couldn't handle, although he'll have to Google some information as we'd not seen a fuel system like this one! We are sharing some mechanical pictures for you to see what makes these mowers work, or rather what fails to make them stop working! We also had the chance to take some images from our second hand drone which we are sharing as it really does show the development of the trees from a very different angle. I's clear to see the very 'green' older wooded area (4 years now) rolling forward to towards the gate and the most recent, 6 months old trees. This really does bring it home, 4500 trees, the area of land they use, all owned by Co-Treetment, and how much room we have left to expand. Each year these trees are absorbing ~112500 kg of carbon and helping to improve the environment. You too can make a difference and help in supporting the planting of even more trees, here in the UK, with silver birch trees starting at £7.95 each, or if you'd prefer £12.50 where £5.00 of the purchase price goes directly into funding a child to have a holiday via the Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre https://lnkd.in/ehSpDp6y Thanks again to all of our customers, each and everyone of you make us what we are today; we will be adding even more plaques again shortly as more customers have been generously purchasing trees. Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox #carbonneutral #carbonnegative #environment #energy #solarenergy #water #change #team #onlyoneearth #sustainable #work #sustainabledevelopment #community #environment #future #trees #society #NFP #carbonemissions #sustainabilitymatters #planetbeforeprofit

Update from the field | Looking Good! Trees, Grass and Bees | 23rd July 2024 As those that follow us have seen, Co-Treetment we take pride in maintaining our mini-forest, formerly known as a field, in Thringstone, Leicestershire. After a busy weekend, with the exploits of fundraising for Derbyshire Children’s Holiday Centre on Sunday (on Simon Evans MBA posting area), team Co-Treetment, visited the mini-forest after just over 4 weeks since our last maintenance day. The weather yesterday was at around 25C, the grass was dry, and it made sense to do what we could before the sun went down. So now 4500 trees reside in the ground at our land, around 60% of our 1.07 hectares are full now, so we have room for around another 4000 trees. It really doesn't seem long ago that we had a bare field! As ever we were amazed to see what had happened since our last visit; the grass was at shin height all around and the trees in some areas at house height! We have tried to capture this in the attached images. We set about tidying up; that means a lot of grass cutting which we do, not because we like tidy fields, but to prevent a reoccurrence of fly-grazing, which we reported on a couple of years back. We also were able to check in with the bees; some photographs of the hives are included in the post; they seem to love life in Thringstone! They're thriving at the moment. Unbelievably our equipment was all working at the start of the day, so we were able to deal with both sides of the 3 acre field, however it was still hard work in hot conditions. Of course none of our work is possible without our customers, and whilst some might only buy a few, some of our customers, individuals and businesses buy 100's of trees. Irrespective of the numbers purchased we do maintain the field for all trees so that the forest can remain as a lasting legacy for the future. So currently we have been able to identify 9 area plots where there are batches of 100 trees or more belonging to a single purchaser. The plots that we marked out during this time were:- AMG Wealth, Senior Partner Practice of St. James’s Place BOAL Extrusion UK Cosy Direct Dynomite Video Production Agency EmailOctopus P. Ducker Systems Ltd Rolls-Royce Simon Crane trentbarton Towards the end of the day, we did suffer some issues with mowers, so we'll be repairing these over the coming weeks, in time for more maintenance. It's essential to do this or the trees won't be able to thrive. Thanks again to all of our customers, each and everyone of you make us what we are today; we will be adding even more plaques again shortly as more customers have been generously purchasing trees. Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox #carbonneutral #carbonnegative #environment #energy #solarenergy #water #change #team #onlyoneearth #sustainable #work #sustainabledevelopment #community #environment #future #trees #society #NFP #carbonemissions #sustainabilitymatters #planetbeforeprofit

BEES and TREES | Female bee emerges | Part 11 | Video 10 | 29th June 2024 This is getting a bit complicated we know, but for those that are following our series of posts, in this one we see after video 9, the full emergence of the female bee. Thanks as ever to Lisa for some footage to share and I'll do my best to explain exactly what's happening in this post. Creating the environment for the bees:- Video 1; On 29th March they installed the apiary, some thing we attached in the post of that time. Video 2; was one with some sad news about bee hive 1 on 25th April. Video 3; 9th May we showed a solution to save our first hive which was in danger of being lost as there wasn't a queen bee. So with the aid of newspaper, we were attempting a merge of hive 1 with hive 2. Video 4; 16th May where we were able to see success in the merging of the hives. Video 5; also 16th May - our slow motion special which focussed on the entrance to the hive Video 6; 11 frames for the bees with a dummy board, Video 7; the workers made it look amazing, stunning in fact, but the naughty workers moved the play area! Video 8; we saw something amazing, the queen in amongst many other bees. Video 9; in the middle of the screen we see a young female emerging. And so to video 10; her 15 minute journey after de-capping is visible, she's emerged with what look like tiny little eyes, they're no smaller than her sisters but are covered in some fluff. That will gradually deplete. She is getting a clean up from her sisters, some attention, effectively a pamper session, then on to find some food, and to begin life as a female worker bee. For those wanting to learn more about bees then don't hesitate to contact David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell on the website link https://lnkd.in/eGD4fXrX or Co-Treetment on https://lnkd.in/eqa4BEbX Remember 'Bees Means Hives' 😀 Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell #planetbeforeprofit #bees #beesmeanhives

BEES and TREES | Female bee emerges! | Part 10 | Video 9 | 29th June 2024 For those following our series of posts, we thought you'd be as excited as we were to see a new female bee emerging. Thanks as ever to Lisa for some footage to share and I'll do my best to explain exactly what the bees are up to. Creating the environment for the bees:- Video 1; On 29th March they installed the apiary, some thing we attached in the post of that time. Video 2; was one with some sad news about bee hive 1 on 25th April. Video 3; 9th May we showed a solution to save our first hive which was in danger of being lost as there wasn't a queen bee. So with the aid of newspaper, we were attempting a merge of hive 1 with hive 2. Video 4; 16th May where we were able to see success in the merging of the hives. Video 5; also 16th May - our slow motion special which focussed on the entrance to the hive Video 6; 11 frames for the bees with a dummy board, Video 7; the workers made it look amazing, stunning in fact, but the naughty workers moved the play area! Video 8; we saw something amazing, the queen in amongst many other bees. And here in video 9, Lisa (Dr. Doolittle) has recorded, right in the middle of the screen a young female emerging. She has de-capped her cell, making her way out which should take her about 15 minutes; a second video will follow later to show more of the action. For those wanting to learn more about bees then don't hesitate to contact David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell on the website link https://lnkd.in/eGD4fXrX or Co-Treetment on https://lnkd.in/eqa4BEbX Remember 'Bees Means Hives' 😀 Simon Evans MBA Darrell Taylor Keith Cox David, The Bee Farmer, McDowell #planetbeforeprofit #bees #beesmeanhives