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Shanvaus Apiary, situated in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim, is not just one of many beekeeping equipment suppliers in Ireland. Our aim is to provide the Irish beekeeper with the latest standard in beekeeping supplies as well as with the best bees and queens. Hives in Langstroth or Dadant size are for sale in polystyrene, all to be used with a mesh floor in order to check for Varroa and to create a healthy climate inside the hive. We believe polystyrene hives to be more sustainable than cedar boxes, normally used by the Irish beekeeper in national or commercial size. They do not have to be replaced after a few years being affected by the damp Irish climate. Permanently wired frames make the beekeeping easier and more honey can be collected without a queen excluder partly blocking the access to the super.
The produce of our beehives such as honey, pollen and beeswax are for sale at the farmers markets in the region.
We also run beekeeping courses. Most people interested in gardening can be motivated to take up beekeeping as a hobby. Our Buckfast bees, marked and/or clipped, are particularly suitable for beginners because they are more vigorous and at the same time more docile than the dark native European honeybee, apis melifera mellifera. These bees should only be kept by beekeepers particularly interested in conservation and biodiversity in specifically dedicated areas as already started in the early nineties by the Galtee Beebreeding Group GBBG. You can meet them in Gormanston at the yearly congress of FIBKA, the Federation of Irish Beekeeping Associations.
In order to avoid bee health related problems fresh foundation is given to a swarm rather than drawn out comb. No traces of diseases still present in the wax can be transmitted. The varroa mite should not be a problem when your colonies are regularly treated, but Acarine, the tracheal mite, is not so easy to detect and therefore more dangerous.
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