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From Round Tower to Bee Rocket
Last week, we told you how the story of the ECAT Bee Rocket actually began four years ago. Not with bees, but with midgies.
Lorna, one of ECAT’s directors, had noticed that wildlife seemed to be disappearing from the grounds around ECAT House, so part of the land was allowed to grow a little wilder. Before long, the midgies returned, followed by butterflies, frogs and eventually hedgehogs. Watching nature slowly make its way back sparked a new question: what else could be done?
That question led her to bees.
Keeping bees. How hard can it be?
Quite hard, as it turns out.
When Lorna began looking into keeping bees at ECAT House, she quickly discovered that beekeeping involves much more than placing a hive somewhere and hoping for the best. It requires knowledge, care and a significant commitment.
While researching the subject, though, she came across a very different approach.
The Round Tower Project
OpenHive is a conservation-led organisation working to protect and restore Ireland’s native honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, more commonly known as the European dark honey bee.
Rather than focusing on honey production, OpenHive’s work centres around conservation, habitat creation and supporting resilient, locally adapted bee populations. One project in particular immediately caught Lorna’s attention: the Round Tower Project.
The idea behind it is both simple and clever. Honey bees naturally nest in cavities, which historically meant hollow spaces inside large, mature trees. The problem is that those natural homes have become increasingly difficult to find.
Only around 2% of Ireland’s land is covered by native woodland, and the kind of cavities suitable for honey bee colonies typically develop in forests that are 200 to 300 years old. OpenHive’s solution is to recreate those lost nesting spaces.
Salvaged tree trunks are hollowed out to create log hives that mimic the natural cavities bees would once have found in mature woodland. There are no honey frames, no colony introduced by people and no expectation that bees will move in.
The Round Tower simply provides the opportunity.
Whether bees choose to live there is entirely up to them.
Why a Round Tower?
The design takes its inspiration from Ireland’s ancient monastic Round Towers, structures that once provided refuge during times of upheaval and helped protect valuable cultural artefacts.
OpenHive has adapted that concept for the natural world. Its wooden Round Towers are designed to provide sanctuary for Ireland’s native honey bees, helping to protect part of the country’s living genetic heritage.
The wider project aims to establish a network of these log hives, giving wild colonies opportunities to survive, adapt and potentially develop greater resilience over time.
It’s a thoughtful conservation project with a powerful idea behind it.
Then one arrived at ECAT House.
That’s a rocket.
Sorry, OpenHive.
We can see the ancient Irish Round Tower. We understand the symbolism and appreciate the conservation work behind it.
But if we’re being completely honest, it looks remarkably like a rocket.
And so the ECAT Bee Rocket was born.
Not officially, of course, but some nicknames are impossible to shake once they appear.
The Bee Rocket was in position. As you can see in the video, inside was a hollow cavity designed to provide exactly the kind of home a wild honey bee colony might naturally seek out in an old tree.
But nobody was going to put bees inside it.
The whole point of the project is that the bees have to find it themselves and decide whether it’s worth calling home. The Round Tower was prepared to make it a little more attractive to any house-hunting visitors and then there was only one thing left to do.
Wait.
Would anything find it? Would bees be interested? And would they actually choose the ECAT Bee Rocket as their new home?
Then Lorna noticed the first visitors.
Not a swarm. Just a handful of bees coming and going.
Scouts.
At the time, we didn’t realise quite how important those first inspections were.
Coming next Friday: Part 3 – Houston, We Have Scouts
The Bee Rocket had been discovered.
But these first visitors weren’t moving in. They were investigating.
And they had a decision to make.
🐝 Did you know?
Honey bees naturally nest in cavities in large, mature trees. The kind of cavities they need typically develop in forests that are 200–300 years old.
With only around 2% of Ireland’s land covered by native woodland, suitable natural nesting sites can be difficult to find. That’s why OpenHive’s Round Towers are made from hollowed tree trunks designed to mimic those lost natural homes.