Recent News & Events
CUH Green Week Celebrates Buzzing Irish Native Honeybees & Delicious Honey Cakes!
On the 9th May 2023, UCC Department of Paediatrics collaborated with CUH for Green Week highlighting the importance of bees to our environment and talking about the beehives on CUH campus.
As part of the ongoing collaboration between UCC Department of Paediatrics and CUH, CUH Green Week was a great opportunity to celebrate, learn more and contribute to the conservation of Irish native honeybees. The event generated plenty of conversation about bees and left everyone with a unique connection to the CUH beekeepers and to their bees!
Dr. Anda Dumitrescu, Paediatric clinical lecturer in UCC and head beekeeper of CUH presented a talk intitled ‘What’s the buzz in CUH about the Irish native honeybees?’ aiming to raise awareness and celebrate pollinator diversity. Bees are the dominant pollinators in most plant communities. Our native honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera, no longer prevalent throughout northern Europe, is fortunately kept by most beekeepers in Ireland, contributing to its conservation. Several staff members and their families baked delicious honey cakes to be shared with everyone in CUH. The happy bee colonies in CUH produced our own CUHoney last year and they continue to be buzzing around working hard in helping our plants and keeping food on our tables!
Dr. Anda Dumitrescu recognized the importance of local honeybee conservation and highlighted the need to focus on friendly beekeeping and bee conservation practices. She highlighted various methods to make our environment suitable for Irish bees, such as the inclusion of native trees, suitable pollen sources and the prohibition of the use of insecticides. Bees are essential ecosystem guardians and they need our help to continue their vital job.