Lake County Beekepers had a display at the Mullingar and District Gardening Club event in O'Meara's Garden Pavilion, where Ken Norton and Phil Raphael represented them.

Creating a buzz about honey

Published: Fri 12 Sep 2014, 12:46 PM

If you’ve always been fascinated by bees, the healing properties of honey, or would even like to start your own hive, the newly formed Lake County Beekeepers Association is the place for you.

Meeting every second Friday of the month – including today, September 12 – the Lake County Beekeepers, who are associated with the Federation of Irish Beekeepers, aim to train and educate people on the world of beekeeping, from juniors to adults, and they are looking for more people to get involved.

Ken Norton, chairman of the association, first got into beekeeping five years ago when he moved from Dublin to Killucan and says the aim of the group is to encourage more people to keep hives as a way of increasing the population of bees, which is in worldwide decline.

“The idea basically is to keep bees but we also emphasise the importance of not using any chemicals whatsoever in the treatment of our bees,” Ken told the Westmeath Examiner.

“While a lot of beekeepers get into it for making honey, we’re more concerned about keeping the bee alive, if we get honey then that’s a bonus,” he explains.

“One of our main objectives is to go around and educate farmers to try and get them to stop using pesticides as much. We also will go around to schools and colleges and give talks to try and get the younger generation into beekeeping.”

Since moving to Killucan, Ken has established 10 hives, and says a half an hour each week is all the work that’s involved in beekeeping once you have your hive successfully up and running.

Just this year, the association’s Jerome Cully from Turin, started keeping bees and talks about how the practice can be especially beneficial to farmers.

“It’s a natural process we’re trying to achieve. One extra hive anywhere is a bonus as it makes an awful difference to farmers. With one hive a farmer can have a 20% increase in pollination, a major increase.

“This is the first year I started and once you have the know-how it’s really not hard at all. There’s great satisfaction in keeping bees. For me the best thing about it was rearing my own queens.”

• If you would like to go along a meeting of the Lake County Beekeepers Association, contact Jerome Cully, secretary, on 087 6919285 or email jeromecully@eircom.net.