The Dalry Community Garden was gifted a bee hive from the previous owners of the Blair House in 2021. Unfortunately there wasn't an appropriate area within the community garden to safely house it therefore an alternative was sought in one of the Trustees garden. It was cleaned and painted and made ready for the bees to move in to.

Two trustees from the Dalry Community Development Hub (DCDH) attended a bee keeping course in 2022/23 run by North Ayrshire Beekeepers Association (NABA) which consisted of theory and practical days at an apiary. On completion of the course, a local retired beekeeper with over forty years of experience agreed to mentor and support them both .

As beginner beekeepers we need to be able to identify whats going on in the hive as well as understand the roles of the different bees that live in the hive.

The queen is a larger female bee with shorter wings but when you have thousand's of bees it can be very difficult to spot her! We need to ensure she is safe and present, as the hive cannot function without her.

 A second hive was given to one of the beekeepers who placed it in the side of his garden, again ready to house the bees.

The beekeepers were very lucky to both receive a swarm of bees in May this year (2023) which had left their previous hives. We will never know the reason why they left but there are several reasons the bees will leave including overcrowding, poor beekeeping practices or the queen can no longer control the workforce.

Over the last three months we have observed the hive to be very productive,  the bees have grown in numbers and produced lovely honey in the comb which will feed the bees over the wintertime. They have been bringing in pollen from all over Dalry and this month they continue to forage for the Himalayan Balsam which is in abundance beside the river.

We will start to extract the honey next year so look out for the updates on our facebook page.