Mayo pupils 'buzzing' after BT exhibition

A national school from North Mayo received rave reviews for its entry into the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.

Pupils from fifth and sixth class in St Joseph's NS Bonniconlon travelled to the RDS in Dublin to display their project, ‘To Treat or Not to Treat’. They were the only national school from Mayo to present at the prestigious competition.

The pupils have been working closely with second-generation local beekeeper, Peter Neary, over the last few months, learning all there is to know about beekeeping. For this project, the pupils researched the most effective and environmentally friendly way of keeping beehives safe through the winter months from Varroa destructor, an invasive pest. 

School principal Emmet O'Connor explained the thought process behind the project.

"The Varroa destructor is an invasive species that came from Asia and Africa and it's getting into the hives here during winter time and is killing the bees," Mr O'Connor said. "There's a chemical way of treating it but it's not environmentally friendly, it's not good for the bees and it's not good for the honey, especially if people are looking for natural honey and don't want chemicals in it. We looked at ways that we can help bees survive through the winter without giving them a chemical treatment."

The pupils have four hives at the school, where two are being treated with chemicals, one with caster sugar, and the other was not given treatment. Mr O'Connor says it is too early to form any final conclusion.

Andrew and Clodagh Houlihan, Tiernagh O’Neill, Eoin Tuohy, Maisie Durcan and Henry Lynott attended the exhibition and received great feedback from all who saw the project.

"The school would like to thank Mark Murphy from Red Bonni Signs for putting together our displays and Mickey O’Donnell and Jimmy Houilhan for organising and sponsoring our bee suits," said Mr O'Connor. "The goal now is to establish a Junior Beekeeping Club in the school and area."