World Bee Day 2024 during Biodiversity Week 2024

With the ‘Bees a Buzzing’ Laois PPN Member Groups were warmly greeted by the Dunamaise Beekeepers Association on ‘World Bee Day 2024’ during ‘Biodiversity Week 2024’.

The Laois PPN event took place at the Dunamaise Beekeepers Association Apiary on the Cosby Estate, Stradbally. The Dunamaise Beekeepers Association was established in 1975 and their members are a wealth of knowledge which they enthusiastically shared with attendees on the evening.

Attendees were provided with Bee Suits allowing them to get an up close experience of the hives. Each hive contains approximately 40,000 bees consisting of a queen, drones and thousands of worker bees.

World Bee Day is observed on the 20th May Yearly. The date was chosen as it was the day Anton Janša, a pioneer of modern apiculture, was born. Janša came from a family of beekeepers in Slovenia, where beekeeping is an important agricultural activity with a long-standing tradition. World Bee Day shines a light on the habitat of pollinators to improve the conditions for their survival so that bees and other pollinators may thrive.

Pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Pollinators are essential for conserving biodiversity.

Laois PPN provided attendees with a Biodiversity Swatch of their choice from the Irelands Biodiversity Series, produced by the National Biodiversity Data Centre.

Alan Dunne, Dunamaise Beekeepers Association said “The Finbar Dineen Memorial Apiary was set up almost 50 years ago by the members of Dunamaise Beekeepers Association as a shared resource. It has been used for beginners’ classes for new beekeepers, to allow the sharing of good practice by experienced beekeepers, to demonstrate new techniques and to support the advancement of beekeeping. This is especially important today to preserve biodiversity, to aid bees to adapt to changing conditions including loss of habitat, disease, and climate change. It has proved to be an invaluable resource over the years.”

Dan Bergin, Laois PPN Co-Ordinator stated “I would like to thank Dunamaise Beekeeper Association for the wonderful and informative evening at their Apiary on the Cosby Estate here in Stradbally. Thank you to all our PPN Member Groups for coming along to this event, what better way to spend an evening on World Bee Day during Biodiversity Week. Laois PPN are delighted to have held this event as part of our Climate Action Project”.