Hot tip

An important seminar for beekeepers will be held from 2pm at the Parkway Hotel, Dunmanway, tomorrow. The seminar will be opened by Trevor Sargent, Minister for Food and Horticulture, and comes in response to the loss of the many hundreds of hives last year in this area.

* Cork Free Choice Consumer Group will hold its next meeting on Thursday at 7.30pm in the Crawford Gallery Café. In response to several requests, information will be given on how to keep a few chickens — where to source birds, how to look after them and how to feed them. Guest speakers include Giana Ferguson of Gubbeen Cheese, Darina Allen and other experts. Admission €6, including refreshments.

* Ireland’s first All Island Ecotourism Conference takes place on January 30 and 31 at &Share Holiday Village, Co Fermanagh. For information and bookings, tel [phone], [e-mail] or see www.greenbox.ie.

* East Cork Slow Food celebrates St Brigid’s Day on Friday, February 1, at 7.30pm. St Brigid is the patron saint of dairy farmers. Learn how to make butter, yoghurt and cottage cheese — and a St Brigid’s cross. Refreshments served. Booking essential. Tel [phone]. Members €25, non-members €40.

* Petra Carter School of Cookery: Learn to cook without recipes while on holiday in the south of France. Food and wine weeks, art weeks. See www.petracarter.com or email [e-mail].