Join Morgan Freeman in the fight to save the bees! – Hayley Matthews

I've written before about my love of bees and how they are such wonderful little creatures.
Morgan Freeman is an actor, film director, philanthropist and beekeeper (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)Morgan Freeman is an actor, film director, philanthropist and beekeeper (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)
Morgan Freeman is an actor, film director, philanthropist and beekeeper (Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)

They work so hard and are incredibly important to the planetary ecosystem. By pollinating flowers, they are literally helping to feed us. So I always try to keep in mind as I see them hopping from flower to flower, that they're doing so much more than making honey.

But bee populations are in decline and we really do need to do all we can to help them. I recently read how in 2014, Morgan Freeman imported 26 beehives from Arkansas to his ranch in Mississippi after learning about their problems. He's clearly a bee lover too so it's not just me that's a bit bee daft.

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It's lovely to hear of someone with so much land and money making a huge safe place for bees because they really do need it. They can work so hard that they get to the point when they literally drop out of the sky. Most might assume they're gonners when they see a bee on the ground but not necessarily. I've said before all they need sometimes is a little sugar water (not honey) and a rest.

Recently I’ve started to find exhausted bees outside our back door which has been really strange. Maybe the odd one can be expected but I've had six or seven in the last week.

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As I went in to full "save the bees" mode, I could see loads of them zooming about above me. It turns out they've set up home in a crack in the wall. Maybe Morgan Freeman's bee Sanctuary isn't that fancy and the bees would rather have the guttering and cracks in my wall.

Regardless, I'm delighted they're in our garden and I always carry about a Calpol syringe filled with sugar water to help them out. I've also set up a bee hospital desperately trying to rescue the injured workers. So it's safe to say I've become slightly obsessed with their habits.

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This might sound odd but they go quiet every Sunday almost like they're all away to a church service. One day it’s buzzing with bees and then it all goes quiet on a Sunday. Maybe they take a rest day?

My eldest son keeps telling me they're finding lots of bees that are exhausted in the playground and seemed concerned there wasn't anything they could do so I suggested the old marble trick.

All you need is a bowl, sugar, water and a bag of marbles. Fill the bowl with marbles and sugar water – and that's it. When I explained the process to my son he wondered why the marbles were so important, but it's so that the bees don't drown.

The marbles give them a landing spot and they can sook up the sugar water in between them without getting their wings all sticky with sugar water.

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So I'm off on the hunt for a few bags of marbles to make a big bowl of sugar water for our busy bees in the garden that keep chapping our back door and for the bees in the school playground – that is until Morgan Freeman builds a bee sanctuary here in sunny Scotland.

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