John doing some queen grafting, selecting larvae from the best of our colonies of native Irish bees.

Maria at the Ardara Artisan Market.

We attend this market every 2nd Saturday throughout the summer months. Check out the Ardara Artisan Market link in our Linktree page above for more information and dates.

Collecting pollen using our pollen trap.

We don't sell our pollen but collect it for our queen-rearing and consuming ourselves on our breakfast. Fresh pollen needs to be stored in a freezer to stop it spoiling. Dried pollen is said to lose about 75% of it's benefits during the drying process.

Uncapping our honey for extraction.

When the honey is 'ripe' or processed and dried enough by the bees, they put a lid of wax over each cell to keep the honey from spoiling due to moisture. When we harvest their excess honey, we remove or uncap the cells with an uncapping fork before spinning out the honey in a centrifugal extractor. We then jar the honey for ourselves or for sale.

More images coming soon!