07 November, 2019

There is a bit of a buzz around Bishopstown at the moment. Some new visitors have taken up residence on campus and in return have put CIT on the map…….for its honey!

Honey harvested from two hives on the roof CIT Library Building was entered in The National Honey Show, the UK's premier honey show, and went on to win first place in its Institution/ National Trust class!

This was all thanks to the efforts of Eleanor Attridge, lecturer in the Centre for Craft Studies, who also happens to be the Bee Health Officer with the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Associations (FIBKA) and a committee member with Cork County Beekeepers Association (CCBKA), one of the oldest beekeepers’ organisations in the country. 

Eleanor said, “After a number of incidents of bees arriving on campus, landing in the Garden of Remembrance and making a home in a number of different locations, bait hives were put on to the roof to attract the external swarms away from the building and into boxes. As a result, there are now two stocks of bees on the roof ”. 

Even though she harvested just two buckets of honey from the hives, Eleanor knew that it was something special. “There was a lovely flavour from it as the bees had been visiting the herb garden beside the Tourism and Hospitality Building. You could taste the variety of flavours coming through and I just knew it was going to win,” she said.

CIT’s award-winning honey is evidence of the biodiversity on the Bishopstown Campus and one of the four pillars on which CIT has based its application for An Taisce’s Green Campus Programme.

CIT’s formal application to An Taisce was made in 2018 on the basis on the work CIT’s management and maintenance team has carried out in relation to water conservation, waste management, reduction of energy and emissions and biodiversity.

Frank Hanley, CIT Building and Estates Office, said, “Our existing biodiversity has fed into our bee population and the increasing bee population is evidence of the growing biodiversity on campus, as is the quality of honey produced, and great credit is due to Eleanor. 

“We are mapping the biodiversity we currently have and plan to have designated areas on campus which will be preserved sites for life, never to be built on and left to return to a natural state. There is a pollinator-friendly plan for 2020 to put hive monitoring on the 2 stocks to gather data sourced from beehivemonitoring.com.”

Long term changes have already been implemented on the Bishopstown Campus to improve the environment for pollinators including maintaining strips of wildflowers and planting pollinator-friendly shrubs and trees which flower later in the season. Rather than fresh cut flower arrangements for conferring week, CIT has also made the change to live re-plantable and bee-friendly shrubs.

The CIT Student Energy & Environmental Society has taken an active part in replanting these shrubs and Frank Hanley commends them for their efforts. “It is fitting to have this student input as the flowers were initially placed on the stage to celebrate our graduates, and now are a fitting farewell from the outgoing students to the ongoing student population.”