Dates for Members' Diary

Membership Renewals

As always each year, we are committed to offering a high level of support and education to all our members whilst accommodating as many beginners as feasible. To achieve this we need to establish how many of our existing members will rejoin for 2024.

To renew membership, please submit the form completed with payment (as sent out by email to members) no later than 31st October 2023.

The benefits of membership are:

Affiliation to the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations
Public Liability Insurance
Monthly magazine, An Beachaire
Education at Preliminary, Intermediate and Senior levels
Access to the Michael Giles Library in Ashford community centre
Access to members' knowledge and expertise through our Training courses, Mentoring process and Facebook Members Forum
Online tutorial videos
Apiary Site visits
Being part of the local beekeeping community.
Assisting in Biodiversity plan

Members Monthly Lectures 2023/24

Lectures for members are on the last Wednesday night of the month @ 8.00 p. m in Ashford Community & Heritage Centre, Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Wed 27th September: Wax Rendering: Jim Ryan, FIBKA, will take us through wax rendering methods and processes
Wednesday 25th October This will be an open forum where your beekeeping questions and issues can be discussed with our own experienced beekeepers. The panel will consist - Terry Meakin, Jimmy Lott, Meave Clissman, Tony Lyons, and Alan Grace.
Wednesday 22nd November: AGM followed by our past Chairperson and educator Alan Pierce who will share his experience of “How my beekeeping has evolved over the past 10 years”.
Tuesday, November 28th: An introduction to Beekeeping - This evening is open to everyone and will introduce people to the craft of beekeeping. Our classes will begin in January 2024 and are available to non-members. If you know someone who would be interested in learning about the basics of beekeeping, please let our membership secretary Alan Grace know at abkamemsec@gmail.com so we can invite them to the Introductory lecture.

WhatsApp Beginner/Intermediate Mentor groups continue to engage now more than ever which provide a great resource especially for those of you with bees for the first year.

We have set up a Members' Forum on our Facebook Page. @wicklowbees. Please join this group, which is private for members only. Here you can ask questions and share photos and start a conversation on a hot topic. Our expert member beekeepers are only too happy to answer any questions - remember in beekeeping there is never a stupid question!!

Video Tutorials: Videos on various aspects of beekeeping, made by our experienced beekeepers have been uploaded to our YouTube channel, which is private. A link is sent to members to the video by email. The videos are also uploaded to Members Facebook Forum.