A hive of activity

BY Jacqueline Hogge WINNIE the Pooh may have had first dibs on the honey pot down through the years but it seems a growing number of people throughout Galway are taking on the challenge of producing their own honey. The Irish Beekeepers Association runs classes in Galway city where, in recent years, there has been a marked increase in people signing up for their introductory courses. Ann Towers in Mountbellew is in the middle of her first year of beekeeping and the slow pace of her new found hobby isn't deterring her in the slightest. Originally from England, Ann and her husband Patrick, the former rector of St Nicholas' Church in Galway, have always been interested in bees, which began when they moved to Ireland back in the 1970s and discovered they were sharing their home with some uninvited guests. 'I've always had an interest in bees, but until we moved out here to Mountbellew after Patrick retired I never really had the means to get into beekeeping,' explains Ann. 'Shortly after we arrived in Ireland, we discovered a bee's nest in the roof our home in Rathkeale in Limerick and as I recall it took a lot of effort to remove it as the Queen bee took some convincing to go. 'I've no experience of bee keeping but I've been vaguely fascinated by bees in the past so when my apple trees weren't producing any fruit I decided to give it a go.' Ann signed up for classes with the Irish Beekeepers Association in Galway, which she found very helpful in getting started, and says her local branch in Ballygar has also been very encouraging since she took ownership of her first hives last summer. 'I actually found it very hard to get the hives but we were at a service in Co Meath where Patrick gave the sermon and at the end he asked the congregation if anyone knew where I could get some bees. Afterwards a gentleman came up to us from Carbery and told us he had some so we came home that day with a brood box and just as we hit the bog road the bees started to escape. 'I got another nucleus through the Irish Beekeeper's Association branch in Ballygar.' A nucleus consists of one Queen bee and about 3,000 worker bees, which along with the brood box, which contains the eggs, lava and honey, make up a hive. But with global bees under increased threat in recent years from a parasite, Ann and beekeepers everywhere have to monitor their bees constantly to ensure they are not at risk of infection. 'It's quite a challenge because the arrival of the verroa mite is causing a lot of colonies in the wild to die out. The mite originated in Asia, where the bees have become resistant to it, but here it is destroying bees as it is a blood sucking mite that causes all sorts of deformities and disease.' And parasitic mites aren't the only challenge to Galway-based beekeepers. 'Being in the West of Ireland is proving tricky with the cold, wet weather, given that bees prefer warmer weather and don't cope well in temperatures below 15 degrees. They don't tend to like the rain or the cold,' said Ann. 'Last summer I know a lot of beekeepers had to feed their bees during the summer, which obviously meant there was very little honey being produced. 'I started quite late in the year so I didn't yield any honey this year. The bees store the nectar during July so they have enough for themselves during the winter but by next month I expect they will be out of honey and I will have to feed them a glucose syrup to keep them going.' Kevin O'Crowley in Greenfields has also taken up beekeeping in the past year. 'My father had a hive back in the 1970s so I always had an interest in bees but it was only in the past year I decided to go and do something about it when I heard a colleague talking about the classes,' he said. 'I did a course in Galway in March and by June I got a swarm and two nuclei. 'Last year I got between three and four lbs of honey which was pretty good for a first season.' Kevin's advantage over Ann lies in the bogland that surrounds his home, to which he transferred one of his hives during the summer. 'I have three hives and during the summer I decided to move to a local bog,' he said. 'The heather honey is meant to be very beneficial and it commands a premium price, it's thicker and heavier than regular honey.' 'I had to get help loading it back to the car after only a few weeks out there, the weight of it was too much for me on my own, so they've definitely plenty of stores there to keep them going through the winter but if I need to I can always feed them. 'I've planted a lot of fruit trees and early flowering plants like crocuses and daffodils so I'll be better prepared coming into the Spring. March seems to be a crunch time for hives as a lot of them die because there aren't enough flowers for the bees to pollinate.' The coming weeks will be crucial to beekeepers throughout the county, as the new season begins in March, when the Queen bees will resume laying eggs, which take three weeks to hatch the new batch of Queen, drone and worker bees. The real action won't begin until May when the swarming season takes hold and the bees start to collect the nectar from a variety of different sources depending on the month. Sycamore, Horse Chestnut and Whitethorn provide bees their sustenance in May while Blackberry and White Clover are in play during June and July. The nectar-gathering season finishes at the end of July with beekeepers taking off or harvesting the honey sometime between mid-August and early September. Although the average yield for beekeepers is 40lbs a year, both Ann and Kevin are concentrating on developing their skills and will be happy with whatever yields the coming summer will bring. For further information on beekeeping or to attend a course, contact the Galway Beekeepers Association on 091 - 521132. [gallery link='file' columns='4' orderby='rand']