Starting 15th February in the Orchard Bar, Kilkenny. This course runs over the following 4 Wednesday covering the theory behind keeping bees and is then followed up with practical demonstrations at our own Apiary in Lavistown House. Contact Paul O’Donnell for more details, 086 2724977 or pauljosephodonnell@eircom.net

This is a photo of a wasp nest.

A photo of an Irish/British Honeybee

A photo of a wasp.

SWARMS

In case of a swarm of honeybees contact one of the following Mid-Kilkenny Beekeepers.

Please make sure it is a swarm of bees and not wasps.  Wasps have a paper like nest.  Wasps are very active at the end of summer because they will soon die off.  In case of wasps do not phone us.  You can either sit tight and wait for them to die off and then carefully find the queen and kill her off.  She does survive the winter.  Or you can phone an exterminator.

Honeybees when swarming form a large clump, almost a pineapple shape on a branch or a large, several hundred bees, cluster.  Please note that we often come distances to collect bees and although we don’t charge a small consideration or a cup of tea would be appreciated.

Hives of honeybees in structures like a house roof or inside a cavitity wall may be impossible to get at but an experienced beekeeper will advise you.

 

Francis Nesbitt #087-236-8555, Knocktopher, Callan areas

Paul O’Donnell #086-272-4977

Jer Keohane #087-252-3265  Kilkenny

Tony Murphy #086-851-8892, Dunmore, Castlecomer areas

Joe Darcy #087-252-4521, Gowran, South Kilkenny

Melanie Foote #087-280-7683, Borris and Gowran

Kerry Hardie, #059-977-3194, Gowran, Goresbrige, Borris areas

 

WELCOME TO ALL

Welcome to the Mid-Kilkenny Beekeeper’s Blog site. We are a organisation of about 30 beekeepers, both new to the craft and long term beekeepers. We meet during the year at Lavistown Study Centre, which is also where our apiary is located. Besides business, there are guest speakers, workshops, demonstrations on site and questions and answers sessions and always refreshments.
Our meeting are announced in the Kilkenny People Newspaper and KCLR radio community announcements. Meetings usually are the first Wednesday of each month and begin at  8 p.m..   Parking is limited so we urge members to carpool when possible.  New members or interested individuals are always welcomed.

For upcoming meeting and events information please scroll down to “Events to Come” at the bottom of this page!

• Chairman:  Paul O’Donnell
• Vice Chair: Melanie Foot
• Secretary: Jer Keohane
• Treasurer: Declan Gough
• Apiary is managed by MidKilkenny members

Marnie and Miranda, Visitors from Oak Park, Illinois, USA visit a Kilkenny hive

 

 

 

 

For information about MidKilkenny Beekeepers please contact
Melanie Foot at melaniedunroe@gmail.com

Sophie and Kimmy from Santa Cruz, California visiting a Mid-Kilkenny Hive, 2015

Our Blog is currently maintained by Gypsy Ray.
Please post a comment or suggestion.

Dr. Brian Durrans, retired anthropologist from the British Museum and Museum of Mankind in London visited Mid-Kilkenny hives to learn about bees.

Our current members are;
John Ryan, Eva Holmes, Padharic Tynan, Stephen Walsh, Inga Reed, Kieran White, Michael Walsh, Sheila Walsh, Gypsy Ray, Francis Nesbitt, Francis O’Halloran, Michael O’Halloran,  Helen Carroll, Fergal Walsh, Paul O’Donnell, Jer Keohane, Dick Houlihan, Melanie Foote, Lesley Round, Jill Daoud, Jim Hayes, Peter Waring, Kevin Higgins, Andy Salm, Kerry Hardie and Kevin

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS ARE: 

A new series of lectures and demonstrations for the summer and autumn 2015

photo by Paul O’Donnell

Jer extracting honey with Aoibhinn and Daniel
photo by Dan Boyd

David Bokslag from Callan learns about bees at a Mid-KIlkenny Beekeeper’s hives

We now have an events committee to determine what events to schedule during the year.  Lectures during the cold months, apriary demonstrations during the beekeeping month

Membership subscription for 2015 of €50, €30 of which goes to the Federation and pays for insurance and national membership and  now includes the monthly beekeeping magazine An Beachaire , which for anyone who doesn’t already get it is a fantastic read.

The rest goes towards maintaining the apiary, funding guest speakers and events, providing materials like DVD’s, postage and mailings, etc.

PAST GOOD NEWS!!! We received a Kilkenny County Council Environmental 21 grant to upgrade our apiary late in 2011.  With it we were able to add a hive and buy some much needed equipment, including an extractor for all the members to use.

MORE PAST GOOD NEWS!!!  We received a Greencommunities Award from An Taisce which w enabled us to purchase a nuc oberservation hive, a child size bee outfit and some hive tools to use for both teaching in our apiary and giving community presentations.

Our apiary is now up and running with three  hives and with our past grants we hope to increase this number.