Bees swarm to Dubliners trying to help them

Anne O’Brien was working in her home office in Glasthule around this time last year when she heard what she describes as an incredible noise. “The sky was dark. There was a bee swarm, moving into a disused chimney in our house,” she recalls.

Some homeowners might have called for the exterminator but O’Brien, who had planted a wildflower garden when she moved into the south Dublin home in September 2020, was looking for a more sustainable solution.

She had done a course with the Dublin Beekeepers’ Association, which put her in touch with Kyle Petrie. He set up OpenHive with a friend Mark Earley in 2019 to answer a simple question: what can the local community do to improve biodiversity?

Earley is a secondary school teacher and Petrie works for an international charity.

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“We were both beekeepers and worried about our native Irish honeybee,” says Petrie. “We decided we could form a company to get more momentum behind them.”

Irish rugby player Jack McGrath is also a partner, as beekeeping runs in his family.

From April to July every year, bee colonies will naturally split. Half of the bees will leave their nest to find a new home. Petrie usually gets a lot of calls from worried urban homeowners, saying that bee swarms are building a hive in their chimneys, roofs or sheds.

OpenHive’s bee-conservation boxes are designed to provide an alternative nesting place. The boxes are specifically designed to hold 40-60 litres. “A honeybee can measure the internal volume of a cavity, which is mind-blowing. They pick a new home based on the orientation of the entrance, size and overall volume,” says Petrie.

The boxes are installed by OpenHive in people’s back gardens, usually by strapping them to a tree above head height. To attract a swarm, an old honeycomb frame is placed inside, along with lemongrass oil which has a scent like a queen bee’s pheromone.

Once the bees settle in the boxes, they are taken away to OpenHive apiaries in Dublin, Wicklow and Kerry. They are initially quarantined and tested for diseases by the Department of Agriculture.

Once they get the all-clear, they can make honey to fund the initiative, but OpenHive ensures they are not competing with wild bees and other pollinators.

At O’Brien’s home, Petrie confirmed the bees were nesting in the chimney – she decided to live with them. A bee box was installed in the garden, and a late swarm arrived in September, which OpenHive took to its apiary. It installed another box a couple of weeks ago, and a swarm has already moved in.

O’Brien has since got a new box and she is hopeful they will get a fourth swarm.

“The bees are not dangerous when they swarm, they have actually stuffed themselves full of honey from their old hive and can’t distend their body to sting you.”

She discovered the man who built her house in the 1950s was also a beekeeper, and she feels like the bees are coming home in a sense. “Maybe they have an ancient memory... to see a swarm happening is the most magical thing.”

A lot of the swarms gathering in urban places are non-native species, says Petrie.

To combat this issue, they re-queen the colonies with a native Irish queen, and within six weeks their genetics have changed, making the colony Irish.

Vanessa Moran and her family have also enjoyed seeing the bees swarming in their back garden in Stillorgan.

They got their bee box almost three weeks ago. Moran’s seven-year-old daughter is very involved, and she put the lemongrass oil on bamboo cotton buds and put them into the box. “She is thrilled to have a job, the lads were great with her.”

Just a week later, the family saw some scout bees checking out their box – they are recognisable as they do not have pollen sacs on their legs.

“Just two weeks after the box was installed, the swarm arrived in the garden. It was like a Formula One car, the noise of the swarm. We were memorised, the whole skyline was covered in bees,” she says.

The bees were then taken to the apiary. The family are hoping for a second swarm and have started the lemongrass process again. “We are also part of a WhatsApp group with other volunteers. We send each other pictures and videos, we are really enjoying it.”

The bee boxes can be returned to volunteers’ gardens during the summer months so more swarms can gather.

This year 100 boxes are spread across Dublin, and people can register at openhive.ie for next year’s offering.