This event is now over
You can READ our report here:
and
VIEW the video Fun Facts About Bees by Rijin Lim (aged 9) here.
Event Details
TALK
Green Foundation Ireland invite you to participate in an online talk:
BIODIVERSITY AND BEES
THURSDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2020 – 15:00 to 16:30
by Zoom
(log-on details will be issued nearer the time to those who register)
As always at our events, an important part will be the Q&A session which will allow full participation by those attending.
TICKET DETAILS
While admission is FREE to this event, you MUST register beforehand as places are strictly limited. Please secure your place by booking here.
Event Programme
OUR SPEAKERS
MARY MONTAUT: “Bees and Plants, the Best of Friends”
Mary, who is the Editor of The Irish Beekeeper (An Beachaire), has been keeping bees in Bray, Co. Wicklow, for about twenty years and regards herself as an Eternal Beginner, because there is always so much to find out and understand about bees. Her interest in honey bees has gradually extended to include all sorts of pollinators, and she is on the Steering Committee of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, representing the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations.
JULIA JONES: “Better Bees in Ireland: Identifying Stressors and Assisting Beekeepers”
Julia is an Assistant Professor at the School of Biology and Environmental Science in University College Dublin. Social insects, bees in particular, have been a fascination since her PhD at the University of Sydney in Australia, and drove her postdoctoral fellowship work on the interaction between environmental landscape, gut microbial community, and bee health and behaviour. This interest has also fuelled work on genomic selection for a suite of honey bee traits, including a focus on resistance to a major honey bee parasite.
Photo: ‘Bee on Verbena’ by MARTIN NOLAN
Director of Green Foundation Ireland
THEME
In order to promote biodiversity, it is essential to have a wide variety of pollinators. Insects are well adapted to this and the most effective pollinators are colonies of bees. Within this group, the various bumble bee species pollinate a wide variety of plants but their colonies are much smaller than colonies of honey bees. While honey bees are rightly thought of as providers of honey and wax, their more important role is as pollinators.
This event will cover what trees, shrubs and plants are helpful to bees throughout the year for both pollination and honey and explain what the main state sponsored scheme, the National Apiculture Programme, is doing to identify stressors of bees and assist beekeepers in dealing with them.