WARM sunny days with bees going about their beneficial business in the background seem far away as the winter weather still has the whip hand.

But bees will be a hot topic in Newcastle today as two events in the city focus on the dramatic decline in their numbers.

Friends of the Earth and Newcastle University are staging a Building the Buzz day at the Great North Museum, which will bring together speakers from across the North to debate the plight of British bees, from garden to government.

The North of England Beekeepers Association will also be holding its 56th annual convention at The Beacon Centre on Westgate Road, when the slump in bee populations will also be on the agenda.

Radio 4’s Gardeners' Question Time will also be recorded at the convention with a bee theme.

It is thought that pesticide use, pollution, loss of habitat and foraging areas are behind the decline of bees, which are essential for pollination of crops and food production.

The Great North Museum event will include contributions from Sandra Bell and Quentin Given from Friends of the Earth's Bee Cause campaign and Pier Paoli from Newcastle University.

They will be joined by Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah, who will help in a planting session which will lead to the creation of two bee meadows in the university grounds.

From 2pm to 4pm there will be activities for the public, including sessions on making gardens bee friendly, creating bee friendly “seed bombs,” learning about bee keeping and trying honey tasting.

A bee friendly buddleia will be planted to mark the opening of the new the bee garden at the museum.

The Friends of the Earth Bee Cause Campaign has seen over 63,000 people sign a petition calling on the Government to introduce a bee action plan.

North Tyneside Friends of the Earth held a Bee Activities Week and collected over 500 signatures .

Friends of the Earth local campaigner Carol Musgrove said: “We look forward to getting even more people in Tyneside involved in making the UK bee friendly from garden to Government, we are so pleased Newcastle University and the Great North Museum are working with us on helping to make Newcastle becoming a bee friendly city.”

The Beacon Centre convention will feature Dr Sally Williamson, a research associate at the honey bee lab at Newcastle University.

Dr Williamson will be talking about her research into the effects of pesticides on bees, especially on bee learning and memory.

Other speakers include Keld Brandstrup, chairman of the Danish Association of Commercial Beekeepers, Michael Badger, former president of the British Beekeeper’s Association, and Dr Karin Alton, who is researching breeding behaviour and urban beekeeping in relation to hive densities and forage.

Convention chairman Helen Simmons lives in South Gosforth in Newcastle and works as a contract manager for a IT company.

She said: “All types of bees are declining.

“It may be due to a combination of factors, including pesticides, pollution, loss of habitat, fewer suitable flowers which bees can access and less forage available with more gardens being paved over for parking.

“This can all weaken the bees and make them less able to cope with diseases.

“There have been people who have been keeping bees in the North East for 40 years who have been losing their colonies.

“There have been losses of around 25% across the country.”