Hanna’s Bees is run by Hanna Bäckmo, a Cork-based beekeeper with a relentless passion for edible gardening, nature, colour and sustainability.

A hive-to-home business, Hanna has several apiaries in East and South Cork with around 60 honeybee colonies producing honey, beeswax and propolis for her unique range of products. 

All Hanna’s products are carefully handmade in Cork celebrating traditional craftmanship with a colourful modern twist and home-grown Irish produce. The range of products includes the increasingly popular reusable beeswax wraps, beautiful honey-scented beeswax candles, propolis tinctures and an assortment of delectable small-batch honeys. All mouth-wateringly sweet and guaranteed Irish. Hanna’s Bees also cater for vegan customers, with reusable vegan wraps made with plant waxes.

In 2022, Hanna’s Bees was shortlisted for the prestigious Irish Made Awards by Irish Country Magazine, supported by Guaranteed Irish and Design & Craft Council Ireland. Her products are available in Ireland’s leading artisan food and gift shops and recently also available in luxury retailers including Brown Thomas in Dundrum and Arnotts. Her products are stocked by a number of select food and gift stores in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Hanna is passionate about her honeybees. She believes their welfare is paramount to the success of the business. Each year, countless hours are devoted to ensuring their health and wellbeing. Hanna’s bees visit a wide array of blossoms, which is greatly beneficial for their health. From this multitude of flowers, the bees make the most exquisite honey. They also produce beeswax, a wonderful natural material from which Hanna uses to create her beeswax wraps, candles, and other beeswax products.

‘What sets me aside from my competitors, is that I can confidently say that I have been a part of the whole process of making my products. All the way from the hive to the homes of my customers. That is something I am proud of.’

Hanna is a registered Primary producer of honey with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.  She is a member of Fastnet Area Beekeepers Association and an affiliate member of the Federation of Beekeepers Associations. She is also a member of The Native Irish Honey Bee Society. 

Hanna is actively engaged in educating beekeepers and the public about the importance of pollinators and honeybees. She can be seen visiting schools and businesses with her Observation hive, often with her son Julius, in tow, proudly sporting his beekeeping suit and enthusiastically telling people that all worker bees are female and that the boy bees, or drones, do no work and have very hairy bums! (Which is all true!) Hanna also writes a regular column in An Beachaire, The Irish Beekeeper and runs a popular beekeeping blog. Some of her writing has received international recognition and she has been published in American and European Beekeeper’s Magazines.