Information coming soon.
Gail Orr, a gentle giant of a beekeeper who decided to become a beekeeper because his father also kept bees. He got an empty hive from his dad and took it to a family friend who filled it full of bees from his apiary and that was him started!
He is happy to let other people do the talking but he takes in everything that is being said. He has listened and learned from all his fathers’ friends who kept bees and now, his own friends who have bees, learning from each and every one and then putting all he has learned into practice. It must work! His bees survive the winter year after year and live to tell the tale. Not all years have been good years, but always he has had bees.
Gail is a member of Dromore & District Beekeepers Club, becoming a committee member and then the club Treasurer for many years. He also held the position of Treasurer in the UBKA.
Gail has managed the annual INIB Honey Show since 2004, the Dromore BKA’s honey show since 2001. He is an INIB Honey Judge and has judged at many Honey Shows throughout Northern Ireland, the Great Yorkshire Show in England, the Royal Welsh Show, Scotland,the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
A husband, father and grandfather. A joiner by trade, piper (INIB Piper-in-residence!) and bowler. A beekeeper with more than 50 years experience.
Growing up in Ballykeel near Dromore he became friendly with local men who were keeping bees and they encouraged him to start beekeeping himself. He needed a hive, so he borrowed an empty hive and made himself one the same – as you do! Cecil got himself some honeybees, put them into his nice new hive and his interest and passion for beekeeping grew from that point. He made more hives as and when needed and that was the start of his love for honeybees and beekeeping.
Cecil is both a founder member of Dromore & District Beekeepers (1984) and of the INIB (2001).
Cecil has long been associated with the management of the INIB and with Dromore BKA Honey Shows. He is an INIB Honey Judge, a honey show exhibitor and often a prize winner. He has judged at the Great Yorkshire Show and numerous local Honey Shows. Cecil was named as the INIB Beekeeper of the Year 2012.
Bees were a part of Walter’s life. His father and grandfather both kept bees on the family farm near Aughnacloy in the proper old fashioned way – homemade WBC hives and on sections only. Both were good carpenters so hive making was never a problem. Walter had his own hive when he was 8 years old. It started its life in a butter box, as there were no spare hives at the time. He invented a method of enticing the bees into a section crate His method was successful and his sections of honey were sold by his mother, who ran the family’s general grocery store. She made a profit, he made a profit and both were happy.
Beekeeping had to be put to one side when he was in his early twenties, as work took Walter to India, Pakistan and finally Brazil. In 1974 he came home and settled in Antrim, taking up beekeeping once again and he has been a serious beekeeper ever since, always having between 10 – 12 hives on the go at a time.
Walter joined INIB committee in 2003 and continues to be valuable and most generous Officer with his experience, time and donations to INIB fundraising efforts.
Information coming soon.