Episode 5: Faye Whitley of BeeVive. Bee-Centred Business
Faye and her BeeVive Keyring.
Hello and welcome to episode five of Prompted by Nature! How are you? Have you been able to get out and enjoy the sunshine?
It’s World Bee Day this week so I thought, what better way to celebrate than to share my second bee-inspired conversation? A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with the lovely Faye, the Founder and Creative mind behind BeeVive. I first came across BeeVive via Instagram and was immediately drawn to their ethics and commitment to helping to protect and care for our bee friends.
By way of introduction to Faye and BeeVive, twenty-six year old Faye is an enthusiast for fashion design, saving bees and creating sustainable, healthy ways of living! Together with her partner, on the outskirts of Exeter, she founded BEEVIVE, a product-based company (and soon-to-be initiative - they have some exciting plans, as you’ll hear!) inspired by a spontaneous encounter with a tired Bee whilst on holiday in Cornwall. BeeVive is bee revival keyring that help you to be ready to help a bee in need. Each keyring is a plastic free pod that contains a glass vial of the same sugar solution used by beekeepers like Jonathan, who we heard from in episode four.
In the last year their community has grown and they are thrilled to have the revival kits stocked around the world, from Australia to Brazil team of Bee-savers, equipped to rescue a Bee in need and spread the word, meaning that even more people have an essential solution for a tired bee to help it continue its mission pollinating planet Earth. Faye and her partner design and assemble each keyring (by hand!) in Exeter, UK and have a strict no-plastic policy - my kind of people!
In this episode we discuss:
Their company ethics including their packaging and supply chain choices
What the product actually is and what’s it’s for
How to know if a bee is in trouble
Their vision for the future and future plans
How Faye herself stays creative
Her views on ‘fast fashion’ as a ‘sustainable fashion’ graduate
The joy of saying ‘yes’
Faye’s enthusiasm for her work was infectious and I was genuinely inspired by both the product and her company’s plans for the future. At the time I didn’t yet have a revival kit but I have since bought one and love it. My six-year old daughter especially loves it and is constantly looking for bees to ‘save’ - I’ve told her we’ll know one when we see one and that we can’t just go shoving sugar water down bees’ throats if they don’t need it! It’s on her next birthday wishlist too :-)
If you’d like to found out more about BeeVive and buy a kit, just go to www.beevive.com or you can go to their socials to found out how people are using theirs. I especially love their instagram feed, where they often share videos of their customers reviving flagging bees they come across in their areas - very much cuteness! Their instagram is @beevive_uk and their facebook is @beevive.
As always stick around until the end when I’ll give you an insight into the meditation and writing prompt that follows this episode. Remember to come and say hello on any of my platforms: my website www.promptedbynature.co.uk and on instagram or facebook @prompted.by.nature. And please do pop a five star review wherever you get this podcast as it really does help to push these conversations and prompts ‘out there.’
Enjoy the conversation,
Helen x
Episode 5b: Writing Prompt and Meditation (audio below)
In this meditation, I'll guide you through a breathing practice known as Bramhari, or bumblebee breath.
In the first part of this episode, I explain how the meditation works; I then guide you into a state of focus and relaxation and then you will practice the breath in your own time.
For the breath, take a normal inhalation and then for the exhalation you make a humming sound until you have no more breath left to exhale (allow it to fade naturally rather than trying to make it as long as possible). We practice three of these with hands below the navel, three with hands either side of the chest, three with hands either side of the top of the head.
Focus on the vibration that is created in your body and any images, words or phrases that come up. You don't have to write about bees in this one, just allow whatever comes through after you've tried the breath to come through, without judgement or expectation.
Let me know how you get on.
Enjoy!
Helen
