World Bee Day: Lidl giving away six packs of 'bee-rs' to help imperilled pollinators - for one week only

One of Britain’s biggest discount supermarkets is giving nature lovers the chance to win a six-pack of special brews, designed to help revive sleepy and fading wild bees.

Monday (20 May) is World Bee Day, and to mark the occasion Lidl is giving away six-packs of ‘bee-rs’ for one week only - which can help give ailing pollinators a well-deserved pick me up. The supermarket will also donate £10,000 to The British Bee Charity, earmarked for educating children in schools up and down the country on the importance of protecting the UK’s precious pollinators, and will be selling bee-friendly plants from £3 later this week.

Each two-centimetre high bottle is filled with inverted sugar syrup, which bees can use for a one-off energy boost. Lidl says the initiative will hopefully empower people to help wild bees, if they see one in need.

Britain’s wild bees need more help than ever, with the WWF warning habitat fragmentation - or bee-friendly flowers and plants being harder to find - pesticide use, and climate change were driving huge declines in wild bee numbers. A 2019 report by both WWF and Buglife covering the East of England found that of the 228 diverse bee species that had called the region home, 25 (11%) were threatened with extinction, 31 (14%) were of conservation concern, and 17 (7%) had died out locally.

British Bee Charity chairman Greg Bool said: “So much of our flora, fauna and food depends on pollinators - we’re hugely excited to partner with Lidl this World Bee Day to give bees and other pollinators the spotlight and support they need.”

Lidl's bee-rs campaign was a great opportunity for nature lovers “to give local biodiversity a little helping hand”, he continued. On top of that, Lidl’s donation would help them to bankroll “thousands of pupils getting out and about in nature and learning about the precious ecosystems around them”.

How can I enter the draw?

To enter the draw to win your own six-pack of bee-rs, all you need to do is apply on the Lidl website here. Entries are open from 7am Monday (20 May) until midnight Sunday (26 May), according to a press statement.

How to use the ‘bee-rs’

Many bumblebees and other pollinators can run out of energy to get back to their hives or nests, especially if they’re blown off course in high winds. If you see a wild bee which is looking tired or slow and not flying, usually perched on on a patio, windowsill, or the ground, Lidl says you can take a bee-r to them - but only if there are no flowers around, as nectar is the best option.

Then, you pour a small amount of the syrup out of the bottle and onto the ground in front of the bee. This will help give them enough energy so that they can travel to a flower and find a natural food source. You should make sure to take the rest of the bee-r away from them too, as leaving it out for other bees and insects to find can cause ‘robbing’ behaviour.

If your six -pack runs dry, the bee-r bottles can either be recycles, or can be refilled with half white granulated sugar and half warm water, mixed together until the sugar dissolves to make a clear syrup.

Note: This story was updated to reflect that the promotion runs for a full week rather than just one day, based on updated information from Lidl.