Greater Armagh Road Men's shed busy as bees harvesting honey          

BUSY as bees harvesting as much honey as possible whilst they can are the  many merry men of the Greater Armagh Road Men’s Shed. 

The organisation, which has grown exponentially at its site in Lisgullion Park , has welcomed no less than eight colonies of bees onto their premises.

This was part of a special initiative  taken on the part of the Men’s  Shed  to bolster the number of native Irish Black Bees in the area, a species which has come under threat due to the introduction of other foreign species.  

Whilst the efforts taken on the part of the Shed to repopulate the species is as sweet an endeavour as the process of harvesting honey from the hives these bees inhabit , so to is the Shed making a small margin of profit from the sell of this sweet bounty,  a fitting  form of recompense for their altruistic attitude towards nature.     

  As bee enthusiast and shed member Peter explained the many fine fellows of his organisation have been working almost as tirelessly as their six-legged counterparts to see to it that they harvest as much  surplus honey from the hives as nature will allow before winter sets in.   

Busy as Bees

“My interest formed throughout the years” said Peter. There use to be a guy called Philip McCabe from Caven who was a head beekeeper. There was a programme called Mooney Goes Wild on the Radio.

“ He would have been on interviewing McCabe and he would have come out with very interesting facts about how Bee’s behave and that they are really intelligent creatures.

“He would have been talking about things, bits and pieces such as this. I had a bit of interest in it and then my daughter bought me a hive for my 60th birthday along with the whole kit.

“I thought I knew a bit about bees until they landed, they were relocated here over a year ago.

“All pollinators are under pressure from the environment we live in today. We are to quick with the sprayer, weed and pest control. If you spray plants this stays on the plants and if the bees ingest it they die.

“The Black Bee population is under pressure from this type of thing and bee keepers will do their best to keep the strain of Irish Black Bee because there are so many different species of bees coming in from different places. They are being bred because they are good honey producers. However the Irish Black Bee should be preserved as best we can because it is the native species.”

Unbelievable Process

Peter elaborated on the unbelievable process which bees undergo to produce honey, explaining how it is the end product of flower nectar being combined with an enzyme administered by these buzzy little boffins which results in the sweet viscous syrup that many of us would liberally deposit over our morning portion of pancakes or porridge.   

“There are currently eight hives at the men's shed. Over the winter there could be between 5'000 to 7'000 bees in the hives, during the summer it could be as many as 60'000. It fluctuates all year long. The honey flow is on in June or July depending on the flora and where it is at.

“The Queen will get her numbers up to the height of the season and the hive will be bunged with bees. They work up to the honey flow so they can extract as much nectar and store it. This is to do them for the rest of the year.

“They convert the nectar into honey by putting enzymes into it reducing the moisture content. This is the cycle. So you do what the bees do, you ration everything out for the year. You would not want to be getting rid of everything in the one go.

“We take the surplus honey they produce of them in a box called a super. Bees will store honey above their heads in their brood box. A brood box is where the bees are being reared “You simulate this with the boxes. You put on the boxes in the spring. The bees will then come in, tidy them up and draw out comb. They will draw out the comb horizontally and then they will store honey in it. This is what is called drawing out the comb. This is what they use to store their honey. They build the comb out to the exact same shape. It is meticulously done and it is a work of art when you see a frame and how intricate it is.”

Whilst the Greater Armagh Road Men’s Shed has a supply of honey on hand to purchase if you are interested, Peter has also launched his own brand of honey inspired by his love of the Irish language.

 ”My honey is bilingual because of my interest in the Irish Language and it is called Mil An Iuir, Newry Honey. This is what encouraged me to jar it up, it was a chance to promote the Irish language.”

The Greater Armagh Road Men’s Shed would like to thank the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, the Big Lottery Fund and Southern Agewell, all of whom have contributed to make the Men’s Shed’s what it is today.