St Clare’s NS pupils happily receive their books.

Creating a buzz about beekeeping

The Federation of Irish Beekeeping Associations (FIBKA) recently teamed up with Tesco and Pink Lady Apples to run a campaign for Primary School children to win, for their class a visit from local Beekeepers.

Four schools from the Cavan and Monaghan areas were successful in the competition.

They include St Clare’s National School in Cavan Town; Scoil Mhuire, Rockcorry; St Brigid’s in Laragh; and Knocktemple National School.

Beekeepers from the Cavan Beekeepers Association visited these schools before the end of year and presented each with a copy of ‘The Book of Bees’, as well as some Pinkids goodie bags for individual pupils.

The star attraction of the visits however were the honeybees brought to the schools in a demonstration hive for the pupils to see.

These gave rise to many questions from the students for the beekeepers to answer.

“Our beekeepers were extremely impressed by the level of knowledge and enthusiasm displayed by the pupils during the visits and we left all the schools with renewed confidence that there is an ever increasing awareness of the importance of bio diversity for the environment generally and for honeybees in particular,” said a spokesperson for the Cavan Beekeepers Association, who congratulated the winning schools and thanked the principals and teachers who facilitated the visits.