Olly's Farm

20/05/2024

Happy World Bee Day 🐝

As a beekeeper it's a great day to recognise the importance of our bees and not just honeybees but all our pollinators. In Ireland we have 100 different species of bees. They all need our help .ie

It's a busy day today though, the Flow Hive in the orchard decided to swarm. After catching so many over the years they still amaze me how they work together
🐝🐝🐝

This evening I'll be featured on RTE so check it out at 7pm on RTE 1. It's my first time on TV so go easy on me 😬

Also this evening I'm going to the Irish Restaurant Awards as I've been nominated as a local food hero 😃 so it's an early finish and try and dress up a bit for the awards. I'll have to catch Nationwide on the player later tonight.

01/05/2024

Dropped by the Powerscourt Hotel, Autograph Collection to see the bees today and they’re building up nicely. They got a 2nd super each.

I’ve no idea when they’re getting out to forage but 2 of them had nearly a full box of honey already.

28/04/2024

It's amazing what a difference 2 weeks makes.

All winter it's been so wet everywhere. So to drive down to the 🐝 in Carrickmines Golf Club I've borrowed the Kubota 🚜

But it’s all dried up now and the Hilux doesn’t leave a mark 😃

Bees looking good overall, some spring honey in the supers. The weaker ones got a frame of brood & bees from the stronger ones to boost them up. The queenless one was united with a strong hive 2 weeks ago 🐝🐝🐝

12/04/2024

I had lots of help this week on the farm and with the bees when it wasn’t raining 🐝🐝🐝

Students Malorie & Thomas are over for two weeks from France. Thanks for all your hard work, it’s been great getting all the frames made, helping with the and getting everything prepared.

Hopefully next week it will be drier and more time outside than inside.

22/03/2024

Happy Friday everyone 🦔🦔🦔

17/03/2024

Happy St. Patrick's Day from everyone at Olly's Farm ☘️💚☘️

Wishing everyone a great bank holiday weekend 🐝

13/03/2024

The future is bright in South Dublin with our young entrepreneurs

I was delighted to be asked to judge the senior enteries at this year’s Leo South Dublin & the Student Enterprise Programme
student enterprise awards yesterday at the Maldron in Tallaght

Absolutely blown away by the businesses and ideas that all the students had created

Walking around and talking to the 33 different entries from all the local schools was an incredible honour

Well done to all the students for entering and to the different catagory winners

Congratulations to AI Study Buddy on the overall win and best of luck representing South Dublin at the All Ireland in May

07/03/2024

Dropped off some honey to Killruddery House and Gardens farm shop

They’ve got the full trio of estate honey there now 🍯

Got through the 🐝 too and they’re all looking good 😀

It’s not long now until I’ll be down with them every week. Can’t wait for the season to start 🙌

01/03/2024

Delighted to be nominated as a finalist in next week's Local Enterprise Awards 😃

Massive thanks to Tom, Peter, Sandra and all the Local Enterprise Office South Dublin team for their ongoing support.

Best of luck to all the other amazing local businesses next Thursday 🤞

13/02/2024

Happy Pancake Tuesday from Olly’s Farm 🐝

What will you be putting on your pancakes this year?

Why not try one of our delicious honeys such as our Teeling Spring Blossom Honey 🍯🍯🍯

Check out the bio for link to stockists!

11/02/2024

Happy St. Gobnait’s Day 🐝

Today we celebrate the patron saint of beekeepers and all things buzzing with an appreciation for nature’s tiny wonders 🐝🐝🐝 As we move into spring and the new beekeeping season gets closer

Wishing you a day filled with sweetness and joy!

Photo of the beautiful glass made by Harry Clarke

🌼🍯

03/02/2024

Rainy wet day so it’s a perfect time for bottling honey

Just finished lots of Powerscourt Estate summer blossom 🍯🍯🍯 from the in the orchard 🐝🐝🐝



Powerscourt Garden Pavillion Powerscourt Distillery Powerscourt Hotel, Autograph Collection

01/01/2024

Wishing everyone a happy new year and all the best for 2024

09/12/2023

Dropped by the Armoury Cafe, Glencree on the way back to drop off more 🍯🍯🍯 I'm in good company on the shelves with The Birds and the Teas jams and chutneys

Treated mum to coffee and cake, great little spot if you're out and about around the mountains

06/12/2023

Harvested the ivy honey here on the farm this morning.
It was an experiment just to give the bees an empty box to see what they’d do and see if it’s easier to harvest than scraping it off the frames.
Some had lots and others very little. Every hive on the farm though is very heavy so they’re not going to need or miss it. I was hoping to use the cold weather as it would have them all below in the bottom box and not disturb them@too much 🙌.
Now just need to make it into a softset after Xmas 🍯

🐝

02/12/2023

For everyone who’s been asking for it 🥃🍯
I’ve made a batch of Teeling Small Batch whiskey honey for Xmas
Teeling rooftop honey from my city bees in Dublin 8 with a good splash of whiskey
Live now on my site and from the farm shop

21/10/2023

Bottling up some Foxrock summer blossom today 🐝🍯

08/10/2023

Brilliant free event at BrookLodge next Saturday with Wicklow Naturally as part of their October Feast celebrations. Talks and discussions with Darina Allen and Jp McMahon. Farmers market showing all that wicklown has to offer.

I'll be there with lots of different honeys to taste 🐝🍯

Check out the post for more details

Only a week to go to our Wicklow Festival of Food at the beautiful BrookLodge on Saturday October 14th from 12 -5

We’re excited to welcome Dr JP McMahon and Darina Allen to our discussion panels.
Entry is free but booking essential…

Book here https://wicklownaturally.ie/events/the-wicklow-naturally-festival-of-food/

Come along and join us for a day of tastings , discussion panels , a Wicklow producers market , live music and of course delicious Wicklow food and drink .

With thanks to Department of Agriculture, Food and The Marine for supporting this event through the RIDF scheme .

Killruddery House and Gardens Glenview Hotel WicklowGreat Irish Beverages Visit WicklowCríoch Catering Wicklow County Council Local Enterprise Office Wicklow

22/09/2023

Up on one of the heather sites yesterday afternoon. It's starting to go over now but plenty of nectar still coming in
🐝🍯

I added a few extra boxes 10 days ago and they've brought in a good bit.

I'll be back up harvesting this early next week
😃🍯🍯🍯

06/09/2023

When there's apples they come running 🐮

23/08/2023

Wow I've been shortlisted again in the food category for the finals of the Irish Country Magazine Irish Made Awards 😯

It's only been a few weeks since my double Great Taste Awards awards and the unbelievable and unforgettable day down at Dunbrody House as a EURO-TOQUES IRELAND finalist 😃

I'm a bit overwhelmed with all the attention, never thought a few years ago all this would be happening 😬

And also a big shout out to my friend Feebee from forager.ie has been shortlisted too with her amazing products 🙌

We would both really appreciate a vote if you've got a minute to spare. Link in my bio or through here
https://irishcountrymagazine.ie/vote-2/

I'm in the food catagory and Feebee is in the beauty catagory

21/08/2023

Heather honey season in full swing, up checking in on a couple of sites before sunset
🐝🍯

11/08/2023

Preparing a few of these trio packs for a corporate order going out this morning 😃

A trio of Dublin/Wicklow Mountains heather honey, Lucan softset and Powerscourt summer blossom 🍯

Each jar is 83ml or 115g so perfect for getting through airport security too

07/08/2023

The Great Taste Awards in the UK were announced a few days ago and I'm absolutely delighted with the results 😃🎉🎉🎉

This year I entered my heather honey 🍯 and my yet to be released (labels pending) hot honey 🍯🌶

My heather honey has won 2 Gold Stars ⭐⭐ again which is amazing, that's the 6th year in a row its won an award with four of them achieving 2 Gold Stars ⭐⭐

I have been asked so many times to make a hot honey and over the last year I was playing around with different infusions. I got so many people to taste it over the last 9 months and decided to enter it as well and it has also won 2 Gold Stars ⭐⭐

Thanks to all the Great Taste Awards judges, the feedback is amazing and I'll share that over the next while too

05/08/2023

Early start down in Killruddery House and Gardens moving some to a new apiary.

All the splits I made in late May got mated, it's very rare to get all of them successfully into a viable hive.

It's a day for the rain gear.

I've a couple of deliveries on the way back.

27/07/2023

The annual migration to the heather is under way 🐝

I've got a few sites ready and just got the first load of strong hives up this evening

It's going to be another busy few days and fingers crossed the weather in August is better than July

25/07/2023

Yesterday at Dunbrody Country House Hotel was one I'll remember for a long time.

Totally honoured to be a finalist and get to showcase my honey to some of Ireland's greatest chefs and meet all these other amazing food producers.

Thanks to Con from The Apple Farm for the pic of me getting my finalist cert with Kevin Dundon & Chef Kwanghi Chan 😃

Well done to Sliabh Aughty Honey for the win and also brilliant to finally meet fellow finalist beekeeper Ailbhe from Brookfield Farm 🐝

Thanks to everyone at EURO-TOQUES IRELAND and all the staff of Dunbrody House for organising such a fabulous day

23/07/2023

Still can't believe I've been nominated in the land catagory alongside these other great beekeepers in the EURO-TOQUES IRELAND food awards 😃

I'm travelling down to Dunbrody Country House Hotel tomorrow and I'll be showcasing my different products to some of the top chefs in Ireland 🍯🍯🍯

And if that wasn't enough, my honey and pollen will be on the menu for the awards lunch too

Just being nominated is incredible, and a massive thanks to the chef that put my name forward. This means so much for a small business like mine

22/06/2023

Just over half the spring honey off the hives now and they're already starting to bring in the summer honey 🐝🍯 bramble, clover and lime all coming into flower 😃

22/06/2023

Thanks to everyone that came along last weekend. it's such a great experience and learned so much from everyone 😃