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ULSTER BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION Beekeeping in Northern Ireland |
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Introducing ..... Norman Walsh |
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Past UBKA Chairman, FIBKA Certified Lecturer, Honey Showman and active Beekeeper
Norman was introduced to Beekeeping whilst a student at Greenmount College in 1952/53. Beekeeping was then taught to both Horticultural and Agricultural students by the late Tommy Johnston. Norman acquired his first bees in 1954 and has kept them at Hillsborough, Sixmilecross, Omagh and again in Hillsborough. He joined his first Association, Dromore, in 1992 and has played an active role in Association events ever since.
He attended Ronnie McPherson’s Advanced beekeeping class in 1993 and since then has obtained his Intermediate, Senior and Lecturer’s Certificates from the Federation of Irish Beekeepers’ Associations in Ireland (FIBKA). In 1999 he was the first Beekeeper in Northern Ireland to be awarded The National Diploma in Science in Apiculture by The National Council for Educational Awards, Ireland.
Norman keeps up to twenty colonies in Dadant hives and migrates them to the Armagh orchards in May and The Mournes in July. He attends the FIBKA Summer beekeeping course at Gormanston each year and, for the past three years, has lectured at both Preliminary and Intermediate level.
Norman has been successful as an exhibitor of honey and has won prizes at most of the major Irish shows and in 2000, the World Cup at the National Honey Show in London, 2004..
He is now a qualified Honey Judge.
Norman Walsh (centre front), Irish Prizewinners and Friends at the National Honey Show, London in November 2000.
(Photograph courtesy of Roxy Walsh)
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