Bee-Kept (2025)

Ask four beekeepers a question, get five different answers-or so any beekeeper will tell you. Beekeepers are a curious species, and just like the bees they keep, the group is often more mysterious than the individual. What is a beekeeper's favourite bee species? What makes a good queen? How do you avoid stings? Bee-kept explores beekeeping and its overlap with other topics: animal husbandry, carpentry, sustainability and more.A swarm-hearted documentary on bees and beekeeping in Ireland. Bee-Kept is a documentary that feels like a visit to a secret apiary, or a conversation with a beekeeper-joyful, rambling, inspiring and packed full of information (and opinions!) about honeybees. Narrated by Alison Spittle. Ask four beekeepers a question, get five different answers-or so any beekeeper will tell you. Beekeepers are a curious species, and just like the bees they keep, the group is often more mysterious than the individual. What is a beekeeper's favourite bee species? What makes a good queen? How do you avoid stings? Beekeeping is often seen as the province of retired old men, and while there are plenty of those in the game, the field is widening, encompassing activists, scientists, gardeners and grandmothers, all united in an enthusiasm bordering on addiction. A calling, a science, an obsession-the only way to get into bees is all the way. Bee-Kept explores Irish beekeeping and its overlap with other topics like animal husbandry, carpentry, sustainability and more.