News & Events

Beekeeping news & events in West Cork.

Next Meeting – Wednesday March 20th, Ballydehob

We hope you’re all buzzing with excitement for our upcoming monthly in-person meeting. We’re thrilled to announce the details for our March gathering, where we’ll delve into the essential topic of the “12 Points to Beekeeping Success.” Meeting Details: Date: Wednesday, 20th March, 2024 Time: 8:00 PM Location:  Ballydehob Community Centre – Store Rd, Knockroe, Ballydehob, Co. Cork, P81 FC89 …

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Spring Cleaning for Beekeepers

Happy New Year, Beekepers! Hello all and hoping that both you and your bees are keeping well! I’m so looking forward to the clocks springing forward, temperatures rising, and conditions becoming favourable so that I can spend time with the bees. Okay, the winter break is nice for the back, but I so miss their shenanigans and their wonderful ability …

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Seasons Greetings for the End of 2022!

Seasons Greetings, Beekepers! Hello from FABKA and hoping both you and your bees are clustering tightly during this spell of low temperatures. I always find December to be a great month to take stock of the past year, the achievements, mistakes and revelations. Having received many phone calls and messages from many of you throughout the beekeeping year and some …

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Getting the Best From Your Bees

Hello Beekepers! Hello all Our 2022 season is almost complete and preparations for the next season are upon us! All the FABKA team have done fantastic work since our inauguration on that cold winter’s night in February 2020 at the Teagasc office in Skibbereen. Our gradual increase in repeat membership renewals have impressed ourselves and others over the past three …

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Honeybee feeding on an ivy flower

Preparing Your Apiary for Winter

Hello Beekepers! Hello all and hoping the season produced a great crop of honey for those of you who have colonies. For those of you who have only recently started the wonderful art of apiculture, what a pleasure you had in harvesting your first batch of liquid gold. What goes on in the hive at this time of year? The …

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Some of the group proudly displaying the FIBKA beekeeping association of the year cup!

We’re FIBKA Association of the Year 2022!

Hello Beekepers! We have some really exciting news to share with you: our little West Cork beekeeping association won FIBKA’s ‘Association of the Year‘ award for 2022! Congratulations to you, all of our members! The committee would like to say a huge thank you for all of your enthusiasm and support. It’s amazing that we’ve achieved so much in such …

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July Notes & Uniting Weak Colonies

Hello Beekepers! Hello all and apologies for the delay in getting this out to you! July is usually a less hectic month than May and June. Most of the swarming is done and dusted. The colonies should have a good fertile queen and a strong population of bees, often depending on how successful your swarm control method was. Supers should …

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First Inspections

Hello Beekepers! We hope you and your bees have been enjoying the lovely weather! This month, we’ll look at what to do during that all-important first inspection of the season. We also have a live, in-person meeting in Ballydehob on Wednesday 20th April at 7.30pm, so scroll down to the bottom of this email for more details. We’re looking forward to …

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