We are FCC Nº22

Following the planting of a meadow in 2021, the new bee and insect hotels have been installed in the Tarnobrzeg Recycling Park. FCC’s team in the Polish town has experience in offe - ring comprehensive services in the maintenance of green areas. The bee and insect hive at this Polish site is located in the Silesian Recy- cling Park. The pollinators feed on the mirabelle and dandelion flowers that cover the meadow, while enriching the biodiversity present in this facility. The Młynisko Wieś landfill, which stores hazardous waste containing asbestos, also houses a new insect hive in a peaceful setting surrounded by woods and meadows. A beehive has been located at Aston Clinton Recy- cling Centre in Buckinghamshire as FCC Environ- ment UK celebrates the start of a new five-year con - tract to manage nine Household Recycling Centres in the English town. The council and the company agreed with local charity Men in Sheds Amersham to help conserve biodiversity and improve insect life in the area by building these shelters. New research into bees has provided more information about their lifestyle and abilities. The species is consi- dered to be one of the most amazing ‘super-organisms’ on the planet. • In winter, bee colonies number around 5,000 indivi- duals, and in summer, up to 60,000. • In a hive there is a queen and 5-10% drones, which help to ventilate and heat the colony. The rest are worker bees. • A drone comes from an unfertilised egg and has no father. It has only one set of chromosomes, so its genetic information is identical to that of its mother. • Bees have special muscles that they use on purpose to produce heat. Some produce more heat energy than others, up to 3°C in the hive, while other mem- bers produce no heat at all. • Bees can pinpoint their location to within 10 centi- metres and, unlike humans, they can see ultraviolet light. • Because bees have a different visual perception of colour - a colour shift towards blue in their spectrum - it means that they actually perceive red as if it were black. Poland United Kingdom Tarnobrzeg Zabrze Biała Buckinghamshire C u r i o s i t i e s a b o u t b e e s C O M M U N I T I E S 59 C O M M U N I T I E S