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 2011's first prize winner. Beautiful, isn't it? Now in its twelfth year, the international beekeeping photography competition organised by the town council of Azuqueca de Henares, outside Madrid is now open. It’s an excellent competition – free to enter and with a cash prize. In previous years, entrants have each received a free book showing the top 100 photographs. Over the years the number of entrants has increased to about a thousand from all over the world, as you’ll see here. As you’ll see from the rules and the previous winning entries (e.g. 2010), they particularly like pictures of people working at beekeeping, rather than just photos of bees.
If you have some beekeeping photos of which you are proud, why not enter them? If you don’t have any photos to hand, you have until the end of April to take some photos and submit them.
Good luck all. Let’s hope we have a Dublin winner this year!
p.s. talking of phototgraphs, our own Eamonn Magee made it into the Irish Times this week, in a story on the return of bees to Dublin’s botanic gardens.
p.p.s. There will be a beekeepers’ stand at the Bloom in the Phoenix Park this June bank holiday weekend. If you’re there, do drop in and say hello.
Spring is with us and the bees are finally properly active.
 Gerry & Mary Ryan deliver a lecture to the Co Dublin BKA on 'Increasing stocks using apideas and nucs' The beekeepers are active too: at our second spring lecture by Gerry and Mary Ryan of the South Tipp BKA we had over a hundred in the audience! Our friend Dr. John McMullan of the Fingal North Dublin BKA was on hand to autograph copies of his new book ‘Having Healthy Honeybees’, which costs €15. Your webmaster is in the middle of reading it, and so far it’s a recommended read. it’s being distributed though local associations so to buy a copy, come to our next lecture or pay a little more on Amazon.co.uk.
 Dr. John McMullan's new book
Our next lecture will be on Monday 2nd April. This time it’s on queen cells and swarm control by Ger Williams of the Gorey BKA. Could be another good crowd, so arrive early! As usual, it’s members only but you can join on the night.
Before that we have another big beekeeping event in Dublin – Apimondia’s bee health seminar, 2012 at the Citywest Hotel. UPDATE: The final programme is now available here. Nowadays all beekeepers need to be informed on the latest pests and diseases, so the entry fee of €70 should be a good investment. Pre-registration closes on Friday 16th March.
Finally, to celebrate the return of honeybees to Dublin’s Botanic Gardens, FIBKA are holding a bee-themed art competition for schoolchildren. Entries will be on view at the Bots on the 14th & 15th of April.
BREAKING NEWS: we have just received news that the Co. Louth beekeeping association is organising a Dan Deasy Memorial Lecture to be given by Clive de Bruyn this year. Clive will give his talk on “ Everyday Problems with Beekeeping”. The meeting is scheduled for the 29th March to start at 8:00pm, followed by an open forum and tea / coffee is served and the evening concludes by 10:00pm. A cover charge of €5 Euro is charged to cover costs. Venue: Fairways Hotel, Dublin Road, Dundalk, Co. Louth.
 A box of baker's fondant (honey shown for scale) February is just round the corner and still the beekeeper in Ireland does not feel that winter has really arrived.
The mild weather means that many honeybee colonies have been more active that usual over the last few months – and in consequence require extra feeding. In winter, most beekeepers use baker’s fondant – the bees can’t take down liquid feed in cold weather.
The new year has begun for the Co Dublin BKA. We had our AGM this week and elected a new chairperson, John Killian. The association’s in good health – and for the first time in living memory we have over 200 members. On Monday week, the sixth of Feb we have our first spring lecture – Mary Montaut will talk on bees and plants. On the following day our beginners’ course starts – it is practically full, so if you want to try for a place, contact Ann (details here) immediately.
This year Dublin plays host to an Apimondia conference on bee health - on the 24th March. Our friends in the North, the Ulster BKA have their conference in spring too.
Hope you can make it to one of these events.
Simon
It’s that time of year again when the beekeeper’s relatives are racking their brains for bee-related presents (hint!) and beekeepers are wishing they’d kept more honey back to serve as Christmas gifts. In no time at all it will be 2012.
After the success of the Year of the Honeybee 2011, early in 2012 we have the International Bee Health Symposium - on Saturday, on 24th March in the Citywest Hotel. It has just been announced that the deadline for early bird registration has been extended until the 11th of January next year. According to an email just received from the organisers:
“In a novel approach, The International Bee Health Symposium will feature roundtable discussions between beekeepers and leading scientists with the aim of transferring knowledge between the two groups, creating practical solutions to dramatically reduce colony loss.
Experts have been invited to report briefly on current advances in the field and then participate in roundtable discussions which will be facilitated by the scientists and leading beekeepers. These experts have been chosen not only for their research but also because we know they communicate this very well to beekeepers.
- Professor Robert Paxton, (Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) – Nosema
- Professor Ingemar Fries, (University of Uppsala, Sweden) – Varroa Viruses & Foulbrood
- Dr Romée van der Zee, (Netherlands Centre for Bee Research, NCB, Netherlands) – Colony Losses
- Professor Francis Ratnieks, (University of Sussex, UK) – Bee Behaviour & Hygienic Behaviour
- Speaker TBC – Veterinary Regulations of Treatments
The programme will consist of 3 state-of-the-art plenary lectures, (open to all), delivered by invited experts followed by 3 concurrent roundtable discussions led by the experts and facilitated by beekeepers and researchers. This format will be repeated in the afternoon with 3 further topics and the meeting will conclude with a short plenary discussion session.”
This idea of bringing the expert beekeepers and scientists together to address the bee health issues together seems a good one, as there is frequently a difference of opinion between the academics and practitioners. Early bird registration costs €50. To book, visit the website http://www.beehealth2012.ie/
Of course, this is just one of the beekeeping events in Dublin during 2012. You can check out our latest calendar of events including our spring lectures and beginners’ course here.
Merry Christmas all
Simon Rees, outgoing chairperson
 The 24 jar class Finally, the Dublin Honey Show is upon us. The cups are polished and ready for this year’s winners, the Dublin Beekeepers’ Association honey is bottled and labelled ready for sale, the volunteers are all signed up and ready to make the show run like clockwork, and throughout the county and wider country, competitors are putting the finishing touches to their entries.
The Irish did very well at the UK National Honey Show last weekend as you can see here, and some of the winning entries will come to Dublin to try their luck. There are a number of competition classes that are designed for beginners, including the ‘dark jar ‘ class where the honey is judged on taste and aroma alone, so if you are relatively new to beekeeping competitions, do try a quick entry – you never know! The entry form and rules can be found here.
We look forward to welcoming you all to our honey show. As well as a beekeeping competition it’s a chance to buy honey from Co Dublin and to browse the craft stalls which are always popular. It’s held at Christ Church, Rathgar D6, from 10:30am to 4pm this Saturday, 5th November.
We look forward to welcoming you! As per last year, the entry fee is €2, which goes to this year’s charity, the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook.
Simon Rees, Chairperson
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