County Limerick Beekeepers Association will hold its next meeting on May 12th at 8pm in Mungret GAA. Guest speaker on the night is Michael Maunsell and the topic will be 'Diseases and Record Keeping'.

Michael Maunsell is a retired mathematics and physics teacher. He began beekeeping in the early 1970s when he was approached by a local farmer to rescue bees from a dangerous hollow tree that overhung the road between his house and his neighbours land. There followed a short intense period of study of beekeeping and carpentry to make a suitable home for his new tenants. Naively, he assumed that the bees would be delivered to him but unfortunately he had to cut down the tree and remove the bees himself.

With a background in science, he set about experimenting with his new charges. He learned a great deal of his beekeeping from his involvement with the Galtee Bee Breeding Group. His beekeeping philosophy is quite simple – start with your own local bees, use natural selection (survival of the fittest, this has brought them to where they are) then progress with artificial selection, using comprehensive colony records.

Michael now operates 25+ colonies so he must be doing something right!

Paul O' Sullivan from Bee Supplies will be in the car-park from 6.30pm, if anybody wishes to purchase any equipment before the lecture.