An established family honey farm plans to offer visitors an immersive beekeeping experience at its business near Cahir in Tipperary.
Aoife Nic Giolla Coda runs Galtee Honey Farm, which she took over in 2013 from her father Micheál.
He had started beekeeping in 1970 but the farm has since grown to grow the native Irish Black Honey Bees, or Apis mellifera mellifera, a strain of the European Dark Honey Bee.
Ms Nic Giolla Coda specialises rears and breeds black queen bees for beekeepers across Ireland and also teaches beekeeping, and makes raw honey and products based on beeswax.
Her father, who was a co-founder of Ireland’s first conservation group, the Galtee Bee Breeding Group, is still involved in the breeding side of the business.
When the group was first set up, there was a misconception that the native honey bee was extinct.
To maintain the native bee populations, however, the group set up a voluntary conservation area across the Galtee Vee Valley.
Other Irish beekeeping groups joined to set up the all-Ireland body, the Native Irish Honey Bee Society, in 2012.
A small European DNA study in 2000 found that the native Irish Black Honey Bee is almost genetically identical to the Tasmanian black bee, which is considered to be the purest strain of Dark European Honey Bee in the world.
Ms Nic Giolla Coda explains that most species are not all “what we call honey” bees, but are efficient pollinators nonetheless. She explains the honey is not heated to high temperatures to maintain its enzyme activity.
With support from its Local Enterprise Office, Galtee Honey Farm sells online and also supplies shops in Cork and Limerick.
The tours are being developed as an initiative of the Tipperary Food Producers Network and include a two-hour beekeeping course, including honey tastings.
“People can put on the bee suits, and we’ll open some hives and show them the workings of the beehive, the size of the queen bee and tell them all about the life of the honeybees,” she says.