"I will arise and go now, and go to Inisfree/And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:/Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee/And live alone in the bee-loud glade."
These familiar lines from W.B. Yeats's Lake Isle of Inisfree - are perhaps providing some of the inspiration for the growing numbers of urban folk who are retreating to the countryside at weekends to tend to their bees. Once considered a dying craft, beekeeping is now enjoying a resurgence of interest among an eclectic group of people.
"More and more people have houses in the country where they are keeping their bees. We have noticed an increase of 50 per cent in the numbers of beginners attending courses in the past 10 years," says John Killian, chairman of the Co Dublin Beekeeping Association and longtime beekeeper. Killian says an interest in bees often springs from childhood, and remembers times spent during his youth in Co Longford helping a neighbour to tend to his bees. "I could watch them for hours. I have often sat watching the worker bees chopping off pieces of the drone bee's wings so that he can't get into the hive," says Killian in fascination. After a drone has fertilised the queen bee, his only function in life has been fulfilled, and he is considered of no further use.
While the countryside offers the cleanest environment for bees, many city dwellers also keep bees - although the challenge of actually keeping bees in a small suburban garden is greater. "My bees have swarmed on a neighbour's tree but she didn't mind. However, if you knew a neighbour was allergic to bees, you wouldn't keep them," says Anne O'Sullivan, a beekeeper in Blackrock, Co Dublin. "I would always walk down my garden first to make sure children weren't out playing or anyone was sunbathing before I opened a hive. "Generally, I open my hives in the morning when people are at work and children are at school," she adds. The wealth of blossoms in some of Dublin's suburban areas has produced honey which has won awards at the World Honey Show and the London Honey Show.
Attracting men and women in equal numbers, the Co Dublin Beekeeping Association has bus drivers, school teachers, civil servants, priests, computer technicians and retired people among its members. "You need to be calm to work with bees. That's why the monks were so good at it with their placid disposition and ease of movement," says John Killian. "If you are afraid of bees, you will send out a pheromone which upsets them."
A keen sensitivity to the floral cycles of nature is one of the traits of a good beekeeper. John Killian speaks with ease about the different blossoms - apple, blackberry, rapeseed - which surround his hives. Like a mapmaker taking in the contours of the landscape with one glance, a beekeeper notes the seasonal variations of blossoms in the area and their attractiveness to the honey bee. "The more you know about bees, the more you don't know and even when you do know, the bees will change their minds," says Killian, deferring to nature's complexity and unpredictability. The bees kept by most people are the Apis Millifera variety from Holland and Italy which were imported into Ireland earlier this century, following an epidemic which killed off most of the black bees, which are indigenous to Ireland.
However, some of these were found recently in the Galtee mountains by forester Michael MacGiolla Coda, who has since begun to breed and sell them with the new name of Galtee Queens. One of the biggest challenges faced by all beekeepers is to prevent swarming. In simple terms, swarming occurs when the queen bee departs from the nest, having left behind her queen egg cells waiting to hatch out a new queen who will take her place. A large percentage of the bees will leave the nest (and the unfinished honeycomb) once the queen bee signals her departure. Some of the strategies used to prevent swarming include visiting the hive every nine days to check for queen egg cells (which take between 15 and 16 days to hatch). Once these are spotted, the beekeeper can clip the wings of the queen bee to prevent her from leaving the nest. Another strategy to prevent swarming is to divide the hive in two - bringing the queen egg cells to a new hive while the old queen remains in the original hive until the honey season is over.
Most people are familiar with some of the myriad uses - both culinary and medicinal - of honey. However, we are perhaps less familiar with the benefits of pollen which can also be extracted from hives. Eaten by the Chinese and Asians for its high protein content, pollen is also deemed to be a cure for hayfever. Beekeepers can also sell their bees' wax for use in candles, furniture polish and various cosmetics.
The Co Dublin Beekeepers' Association is on 01 4931830.