This blog documents the story of the Bee Limerick Group and their quest to introduce honey bees back into the city centre of Limerick. Bee Limerick along with its partners are also involved in planting native Irish flowers, shrubs and trees to create a resilient urban ecology.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

The arrival of our first bees to Limerick City

Bee Limerick have brought their first bee colony into Limerick City thanks to the pledges made by the many generous people. The bees are the native Irish dark bee Apis Mellifera Mellifera and were sourced from a reputable supplier.  Presently the amount of bees in the hive number between 10,000- 20,000. If the weather improves and the hive thrives -  we hope the population in the hive will expand to 50,000 plus over the summer.
The bee hive we are using is called a national standard hive and it was generously donated by bee keeper John O’Neill.  It is our hope to make a more ecological sound second hive known as a ‘Top Bar’ hive. The idea is to compare the honey yields and colony successes of the National hive verses the Top Bar hive.
The bees were given to us by county Limerick bee keeper Leslie Hartigan. Recognition must be given to Leslie for offering us the bees at a huge knock down price as Irish bees are very scarce these days and a nucleus may fetch anywhere between 175 – 275 euros. Leslie has also been very helpful in giving us bundles of advice to help Bee Limerick find our feet.
We will have a honey back guarantee of Limerick City honey in 2012 for all pledges, if the colonies are successful!
Please stay posted for updates on our general progress, hive  making and honey processing classes.
            Our third visit to Leslie and our first look at our hive with the new bee nucleus installed

                                            Leslie inspecting the varroa tray. Our hive has the all clear : ))


                           Thorough inspection of our hive for vorroa and yep we have the all clear : ))

                              Luciana and Brian look on as Leslie describes in detail the behaviour of the bees
   
                                  
       Bee Propolis: a resinous mixture that honey bees collect from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hive.
Propolis is used for small gaps (approximately 6 millimeters (0.24 in) or less), while larger spaces are usually filled with beeswax.

The five frames from the mini nucleus inserted into our hive. In time the bees will expand out to fill all frames....with luck!!

Leslie sharing some truly important information with us on maintaining a thriving hive

                                  And finally.....we have our first bee hive safely installed in Limerick City

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Sustainable Bee Keeping

Bee Limerick is about creating a resilient urban ecology that will support native bees and other wildlife to thrive within the city limits. It is very important that we influence the planting regime in the city to consider native Irish flowers, shrubs and trees. But what about the actual hives the bees live in? The traditional national hives are expensive, heavy and all the extra little bits needed really begin to add up in cost. Wouldn't be great to have a more natural bee hive that is more sustainable, low-impact, low-cost, chemical-free, small-scale, 'organic', that requires the use of simple equipment that almost anyone can make at home. Sounds good to me : )

This is when we came across the very informative website http://www.biobees.com/ which is all about sustainable bee keeping, and The Barefoot Beekeeper which is a revolutionary book about 'sustainable', chemical-free beekeeping, showing how it can be simplified and made accessible to all, including people with disabilities, as with this method there is no heavy lifting involved.

The author strips away all unnecessary complication and confusion, demonstrating that 'modern' beekeeping methods are largely to blame for the poor state of health of the honeybee and that the commercialization of beekeeping marked the start of the disease and parasite problems that honeybees have been trying to deal with ever since.

The author advocates small-scale, sustainable beekeeping, with minimal disturbance to the bees and more time spent observing and learning from them. This book shows how you can make everything you need to keep bees yourself, using recycled materials and simple tools: you do not need to buy any additional equipment at all, nor do you need synthetic medications or other chemicals.


 Sustainable kee keeping is all about the 'top bar hives' or 'natural beekeeping' and the biobees website has an amazing 44 page free manual on how to make your first top-bar bee hive.

This will definitely be an up coming project for bee limerick. Also it will be interesting to record the success and failures of each hive design over the period of one year.

Top bar bee hive with viewing window so bees can be observed without disturbing them and altering the temperature in the hive