Lockdown means more time spent in our homes and our gardens, but whatever size garden (or windowbox) you have you can get involved (a great project to do with the children too)!
The Bee Saviour Behaviour card is one of the more original printing projects that we have been involved in. The team behind the project had the noble idea of encouraging people to carry a little card containing sugar syrup to revive exhausted bees. The idea proved popular and a crowdfunding campaign enabled the team to upscale their initial design and increase their production of the insect-reviving cards.
How It Works
In their industrious search for nectar, bees can fly many miles from their hive. Sometimes a bee will run out of energy and land exhausted on the ground. A small drink of sweet nectar will soon have the bee back in the air, but if there are no flowers around then the exhausted bee may not be able to work up the energy to get back to the hive.
An insect-loving good Samaritan can give a bee a dose of sugar syrup to set the insect up for the next stage of her journey. Fine if you are at home and the solution can be prepared in a teaspoon, but what if you see a distressed bee when you are out and about? This is where the Bee Saviour Behaviour card comes in. A section of the card can be peeled back to reveal the sugar syrup. Once the bee has been revived and buzzed off, the card can be resealed and popped back in a wallet or handbag.
Printing Expertise
We were contacted to provide the printing services for the latest iteration of the Bee Saviour card. We printed the backing card and two self-adhesive panels which reveal and reseal the card, one of which was foil backed.
Most importantly, we worked alongside the team at Saviour Bees advising on the simplification of the concept and working out a way of embossing the plastic card in the hexagon style. We also recommended a supplier who could produce these, the whole project was very collaborative.
We enjoyed being involved in this unusual project where our printing expertise was used to solve problems and produce an attractive functional item that is now in use internationally. People are sharing their pictures and videos of revived bees on social media under the hashtag #SaviourBees.