Researchers at the University of Galway are looking for citizen scientists to monitor hundreds of wild and native honey bee colonies around the country.
It's part of the work of the Honey Bee Research Centre at the university.
The call comes on World Bee Day, which was created by the United Nations to encourage people to think about the role that bees and pollination plays in life.
It is estimated that a third of the food people eat is a result of pollination, which is when bees, or other insects, transfer pollen from one plant to another, starting the process for new plants to grow and produce.
Ireland is the last stronghold for the black bee in Europe, which has been under threat from parasites, loss of natural habitat, climate change and from imported bees.
The theme of this year's World Bee Day is 'Bee engaged with Youth’.
At Tombrack National School in Ferns, Co Wexford, pupils this afternoon were tending to their very own beehives. The pupils took some time out of their bee-sy day to change honey trays at the hive in their community garden.
The garden allows them to learn about the critical role pollenating bees play in agriculture, biodiversity, and ecological balance.
Speaking on RTÉ’s News At One Professor Grace McCormack of the Honey Bee Research Centre, who is also Head of the School of Natural Sciences at University of Galway, said that citizen scientists can register as custodians of the colonies to track their activity and survival into the future.
Prof McCormack said custodians would be asked to check in on their website - www.galwayhbrc.ie - four times a year to document whether colonies are alive after the winter, after a long cold spring, and if they are active after swarming.
"That will help us to see how many of the colonies are surviving," she said, adding that she was not looking for people to get too close to the bees.
"Those colonies that survive, we will come out and sample the colonies, then we will carry out geonomics, their morphology and behaviour to prove that they can live for a long period of time on their own, they don’t need to be treated with chemicals but also how they do this.
"These wild bees provide a really good potential stock for beekeepers. If they are living in the wild, they will give us really good information, how they feed and whether they have evolved a resistance to mites and diseases and can live despite the presence of them.
