Beekeeper takes sting out of youth crime

Nature’s lessons: Orlando Clarke wants youth offenders to learn to keep bees
12 April 2012

A beekeeper is to tackle youth crime with the help of his craft.

Orlando Clarke's initiative will teach troubled 16 to 19-year-olds how to maintain hives and harvest honey. He is in talks with youth offending programmes and intends to place 2,000 hives across London by 2012.

Mr Clarke, 40, has kept bees for nine years and owns hives near King's Cross and in Peckham. He believes that nature, and getting involved in a positive project, may help reform offenders' behaviour.

"Nature is self-limiting, it sets the boundaries, you have to work within strict limits where the rules are imposed," he said. "Young people have ideas that aggression equals strength. Bees give us an awareness of our movements and our physical and emotional strength."

The project also aims to help the honeybee population, which has suffered a sharp decline in recent years. Mr Clarke, from Nunhead, appeared in the BBC documentary Who Killed The Honeybee? this summer, which investigated the plight of the species.

Mr Clarke, whose firm is called Bees For Cities, is hoping boroughs will provide land for hives. The first will be in Peckham Rye for the start of the honey season next March.

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