Work With Us

Do you have a passion for invertebrates, food, farming or nature or always wondered what it would be like to work or volunteer with us? Then please do check below regularly to see if we have any positions available!

Bug Farm Foods Ltd

Job title: Food Production and Packaging Assistant

Days per week: 1-3 days per week, with the potential to increase as the business grows

Short/long term: 6-months with the potential to extend. Starting from March 2024

Paid/voluntary: Paid – hourly wage to be discussed

We are looking for a very organised, self-motivated, practical and enthusiastic individual with a passion for food to join our small team to take the lead on baking our Cricket Cookies and manufacturing of VEXo insect and plant Bolognaise with the possibility to take on sales and outreach.

There may be an opportunity to combine the Bug Farm Foods and Grub Kitchen roles.

Click here for the full job description

To apply for this position please send us an e-mail or cover letter, detailing why you think you would be suitable for the position, and a CV to info@thebugfarm.co.uk. Make sure to say which position you are interested in.

Application deadline: 18/02/2024

Grub Kitchen Ltd

Job title: Assistant Chef

Days per week: 15-30 hours per week

Short/long term: Seasonal – March-September

Paid/voluntary: Paid – hourly wage to be discussed

We are looking for a reliable and enthusiastic individual with a passion for food to join our fun, vibrant and hard-working team.

There may be an opportunity to combine the Bug Farm Foods and Grub Kitchen roles.

Click here for the full job description.

Application deadline: 18/02/2024

Grub Kitchen Ltd

Job title: Front of House Manager

Days per week: 15-30 hours per week

Short/long term: Seasonal – March-September

Paid/voluntary: Paid – hourly wage to be discussed

We are looking for a smiley, reliable and enthusiastic individual with a passion for food to join our fun, vibrant and hard-working team.

There may be an opportunity to combine the Bug Farm Foods and Grub Kitchen roles.

Click here for the full job description.

Application deadline: 18/02/2024

Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm Ltd

Job title: Bug Farm Seasonal Volunteer

Days per week: 3-5 days per week

Short/long term: Seasonal – March-September/October or a part of this period (no less than 4 weeks)

Paid/voluntary: Unpaid – volunteer position (multiple positions may be made available for the correct candidates)

We are offering a fantastic opportunity for students/early-career naturalist to get into the world of applied entomology/invertebrate zookeeping/ecology/nature recovery/outreach in a busy and vibrant visitor attraction and research centre.

Click here for the full role description.

Application deadline: 18/02/2024

Dr Beynon’s Bug Farm Ltd – Research projects

We also have the following research opportunities available. This project would suit students carrying out undergraduate, MSc or PhD research or students/early career scientists wanting to take on an independent research project to gain experience in the field and build their CV. Dr Beynon did this instead of doing a MSc before doing her doctorate!

Project title: Ramsey Island Coastal Invertebrate Survey

Approximate duration: 5 months part-time

Dates: April-September

Suitable for: Undergraduate/MSc project or similar

Paid/voluntary: Unpaid – volunteer position. Accommodation provided as part of the position on Ramsey Island

This is a fabulous opportunity to carry out entomological research that will be used to directly influence the conservation management of the incredible Ramsey Island Nature Reserve, which is situated just off the St Davids peninsula and is owned by the RSPB. The survey is to be a repeat of Beynon (2015) to enable a direct comparison. There is the potential to carry out more intensive dung beetle and ground beetle sampling to enable comparison with Bishop (2011).

Since the publication of Beynon (2015) report, the conservation grazing on Ramsey Island has changed considerably. The RSPB want to ensure that they are managing the grazing and habitats on the island effectively for invertebrates and would like to have the 2013/14 survey work repeated in 2024 to see how the invertebrate populations and assemblages has changed over the last 10 years. This research work would directly link to the Ramsey Island Management Plan and the results would likely influence how the island is managed in the future.

Click here for more information on the research project.

Research project

Project title: Marsh fritillary butterfly reintroduction

Approximate duration: TBC

Dates: TBC – late 2024- 2025 start

Suitable for: PhD or possibly MSc project, or both

Paid/voluntary: Unpaid – we would be happy to look into funding opportunities with you and a university supervisor

This is part of a wider project looking at bringing back the marsh fritillary butterfly to the St Davids peninsula. More information on the background to the project can be found at the following project pages: Bringing Back the Marsh Fritillary to the St Davids Peninsula, Connecting the Commons and Common Connections.

We would like to develop a programme of research around a potential marsh fritillary butterfly reintroduction to the St Davids peninsula in 2025. While we would encourage students to develop their own programme of research around the project, we are especially interested in questions related to metapopulation dynamics.

Click here for more information on the research project.

Additional research/conservation/volunteer roles

We have a number of long-term conservation and research fieldwork experiments running and are interested in finding students who may like to carry out their research projects on them. These include:

Plastic-free and herbicide-free woodland creation.
Assessing the costs and benefits of eDNA soil and water sampling compared to conventional ecological surveying across the St Davids peninsula (data have already been collected): See film on the Common Connections page.
Cataloguing a historic global butterfly collection and comparing species distributions with today (winter project).
Bumblebee and butterfly surveys: We are looking for regular volunteers to assist with our surveys across the St Davids peninsula.
Assessing the efficacy of toad gulley ladders in reducing toad mortality – see the BHS website for more information. We may be able to offer this as a student project, but the start-date of this work has not yet been finalised.
Assessing how horse owners can reduce the environmental impacts of antiparasitic treatments: We have a strong collaboration of vets and ecologists committed to addressing this issue and may be able to collaborate on a student project on this topic. If you are interested in this topic, or on non-target impacts of antiparasitics in animals more generally, have a look at the bottom two fact sheets on the Dung Beetles Direct page.
Fancy carrying out a research project with us but want to design it yourself? Have a look at our Common Connections project to have an idea of some of the data we collect In particular, the list of reports should give you an idea of the data that is available.

All roles are offered to people aged 18yrs+. We have a small number of work experience placements available each year for young people, for which there is usually a waiting list. If you are interested in work experience, please send us an e-mail to express interest.

Accommodation

Dr Beynon may be able to separately offer subsidised accommodation in a (beautiful) shared staff/student house St Davids for a small number of staff/volunteers/students. If you are interested in accommodation, please get in touch with sarah@thebugfarm.co.uk as soon as possible and we will give you more information, as spaces are extremely limited.