South Kildare Beekeepers Association

06/09/2026

🐝🍯 A Great Night at the South Kildare Beekeepers Annual Club Extraction! 🍯🐝

What a fantastic evening we had at our annual club honey extraction in August! 🐝

There was plenty of hard work, plenty of laughs, and — most importantly — plenty of fresh, delicious local honey! 🍯😋

It’s always great to see club members coming together, sharing their knowledge and experience, and enjoying the fruits of all their hard work throughout the beekeeping season.

Here are a few photographs from the night, capturing some of the happy faces of our members enjoying the fresh honey. 🐝😊🍯

A big thank you to everyone who helped make the evening such a success.

South Kildare Beekeepers Association
🐝 Supporting beekeepers • Sharing knowledge • Enjoying the honey 🐝

01/09/2026

🐝 SEPTEMBER JOBS AROUND THE APIARY 🍯

September is an important month for the beekeeper. The honey crop may be coming to an end, but there is still plenty to do to make sure our bees are strong, healthy and well prepared for the winter ahead.

Here are some of the main jobs to be getting on with:

🍯 Finish taking off honey
Remove any remaining honey supers once the crop is finished. Make sure honey is properly stored and extracted.

👑 Check the queen and brood
Make sure colonies are queenright and that there is a good pattern of healthy brood. A strong, healthy colony going into autumn is your best insurance for winter.

🐝 Assess colony strength
Identify any weak colonies that may need attention. September is the time to make decisions about combining colonies rather than leaving weak colonies to struggle through winter.

🥄 Feed if necessary
Once the honey crop is finished, assess each colony's stores. If they are short of food, start feeding with appropriate thick sugar syrup and keep an eye on their progress.

💊 Varroa treatment
Make sure your colonies are being monitored and treated appropriately for Varroa. Reducing mite levels in late summer/early autumn is particularly important for producing healthy winter bees.

🚪 Reduce entrances
As wasp pressure increases, consider reducing entrances where appropriate. This can help smaller colonies defend themselves against robbing and wasps.

🕵️ Watch for robbing
With natural forage becoming scarcer, robbing can become a serious problem. Avoid leaving honey or syrup exposed around the apiary and keep inspections tidy and efficient.

🧱 Check the equipment
Remove unnecessary boxes and equipment, check roofs and floors, and make sure colonies are dry and secure going into the wetter months.

🌧️ Think ahead to winter
September is all about getting colonies into the best possible condition for winter. Strong bees, good food stores, low Varroa levels and a healthy queen are the priorities.

🐝 Remember — there is still plenty happening in the hive even when the beekeeper's season starts to slow down!

30/08/2026

🚨🐝 ASIAN HORNET – HAVE YOU SEEN ONE? 🐝🚨

South Kildare Beekeepers are asking everyone to keep an eye out for Asian hornets (Vespa velutina).

Asian hornets are an invasive species that pose a serious threat to honey bees and other pollinating insects. Early detection is really important, so if you think you have spotted one, please report it here https://invasives.ie/asianhornet/report/ — even if you’re not 100% sure.

📸 If possible, take a photograph of the insect from a safe distance. Don’t try to catch or disturb it.

👉 Report a sighting or suspected sighting here:
Report an Asian Hornet sighting – Invasives.ie

🔎 What to look out for:
• A mostly dark/black body
• A distinctive orange/yellow face
• A broad orange band towards the end of the abdomen
• Yellow tips to the legs

⚠️ Please don’t approach, disturb or attempt to remove a nest. Asian hornets can become defensive if their nest is threatened.

Every report helps. You don't need to be a beekeeper to make a difference. If you see something you suspect could be an Asian hornet, take a photo if it is safe to do so and report it.

🐝 Help us protect Ireland’s honey bees and pollinators.

South Kildare Beekeepers

25/08/2026

if your looking for pure irish honey , drop us a line , over 80 beekeepers with real honey

07/08/2026

Love this

if you would like to see how interesting hedge's can be , come along to Hedgerows Ireland All-Ireland Hedge Laying Championships Saturday 26th September 2026 in Oghil, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare

Details here https://hedgerows.ie/hedge-laying-championships

From a distance, a hedgerow may look like nothing more than a thin green line between fields. France now sees those lines as working infrastructure for the countryside.

Under its Pacte en faveur de la haie, launched in 2023, France set a target of achieving a net gain of 50,000 kilometres of hedgerows between 2020 and 2030. The programme supports new planting, natural regeneration and better care for existing hedges, with farmers, local authorities and environmental groups all involved.

Their value reaches far beyond appearance. Thick roots hold soil in place and slow rainwater, while branches soften strong winds and reduce moisture loss from fields. Flowers support pollinators, dense growth offers shelter and travel routes for wildlife, and nearby crops can benefit from insects that naturally control pests. Hedgerows also store carbon in their wood and surrounding soil.

France’s renewed effort follows decades of decline, when many field boundaries were removed or poorly maintained. By rebuilding these living corridors, the country is not simply decorating farmland. It is creating a vast natural support system that protects farms, connects habitats and helps rural landscapes cope with changing weather.

06/08/2026

still swarms around 👊

04/08/2026

🍯🐝 August in the Apiary – A Busy Month for Beekeepers! 🐝🍯

August marks the beginning of the winding down of the beekeeping season, but there's still plenty to do in the apiary.

🌼 Jobs for August include:
✅ Remove and extract surplus honey.
✅ Return wet supers to the bees for cleaning.
✅ Check colonies have enough food after the honey harvest.
✅ Begin Varroa treatment as soon as honey supers are removed.
✅ Reduce hive entrances if wasps become a problem.
✅ Watch for signs of robbing and take action if necessary.
✅ Assess each colony's strength and queen performance before autumn.
✅ Continue ensuring the bees have a reliable water source.
✅ Start planning autumn feeding if required.

🍯 SKBA Honey Extraction Night

This month, South Kildare Beekeepers Association will be extracting the honey from the club's own beehives. This is always one of the highlights of the beekeeping year and a fantastic opportunity to see the honey harvesting process from start to finish.

Whether you're a complete beginner, a new beekeeper, or have years of experience, everyone is welcome to come along. It's a great evening to learn, ask questions, share experiences, and, of course, enjoy the wonderful aroma of freshly extracted local honey!

We look forward to seeing you there! 🐝🍯

04/08/2026

Some of our Beekeepers attended this event last time it was on - well worth putting the date in your diary again for next month

Join us at the 2026 All-Ireland Hedge Laying Championships on Saturday 26th September!

📍 Oghil, Monasterevin, Co. Kildare, W34 RF89 (Exit the M7 at Junction 14)
⏰ Open to spectators from 10-4 pm.

See this traditional countryside skill in action and enjoy the accompanying food and trade stalls, including local craftspeople. It’s a family-friendly day out and there will also be opportunities to hear from experts about how to plant and manage hedgerows for nature.

The event is free to attend, just arrive on the day and follow the direction of our parking stewards.

🏆 Would you like to compete? We have categories for both novice and experienced hedge layers. Email us on [email protected] for more details.

🔗 Discover our previous All-Ireland Champions on www.hedgerows.ie/hedge-laying-championships.

28/07/2026

Please stay vigilant

https://invasives.ie/

The Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet, Vespa Velutina, is a highly effective predator that poses a serious threat to honeybees and other pollinators.

A confirmed sighting has recently been reported, just over the border in Norfolk, serving as a timely reminder to remain vigilant to the presence of this non-native species and report any suspected sightings immediately.

Following a report from a Norfolk beekeeper, the National Bee Unit (NBU) attended the site the same day, confirmed the identification and successfully tracked the hornet to its nest.

You can read the full details in this post from Norfolk Beekeepers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/norfolkbeekeepers/posts/27989940937302717/

If you think you have spotted the Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet, please report it immediately so that experts can take quick and effective action to locate and eradicate nests before the species can spread further. When making a report, a clear photo is very important to determine the insect seen. Reports without images are much less likely to be investigated.

Report any sightings via the Asian Hornet Watch app:
https://www.ceh.ac.uk/our-science/citizen-science/asian-hornet?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21647389615&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvvLRgpLrlQMVxZBQBh306AP2EAAYASAAEgINvPD_BwE

If you are monitoring for the Yellow-Legged Asian Hornet, please remember to use monitoring traps, not kill traps. The NBU relies on live hornets to track them back to their nests. Using monitoring traps, instead of kill traps, also allows you to release any non-target bycatch, helping to protect our native pollinators and biodiversity.

22/07/2026

🍯 HONEY EXTRACTION NIGHT – One of the Highlights of the Beekeeping Year! 🐝

If you've been looking forward to seeing the magic happen, this is the meeting you won't want to miss!

Join us on Wednesday, 5th August, at 7:30pm in Athy Parish Centre (Eircode: R14 XY00) for our annual Honey Extraction Night.

This is a fantastic hands-on evening, especially for our beginner beekeepers, where you'll get the opportunity to learn how honey is extracted from the frames taken from the South Kildare Beekeepers Association's apiary.

Whether you're new to beekeeping or have years of experience, everyone is welcome. It's always a great social evening, a chance to learn, ask questions, and see the rewarding end result of all the hard work our bees (and beekeepers!) have put in throughout the season.

🍯 Wednesday, 5th August
🕢 7:30pm
📍 Athy Parish Centre (Eircode: R14 XY00)

We look forward to seeing all our members there for what is always one of the best nights of the beekeeping calendar! 🐝💛