Irish beekeeper builds fully functioning hive out of Legos

An Irish beekeeper spent his quarantine building an elaborate, fully functioning hive out of Legos.

Ruairi O Leocháin, a schoolteacher and wildlife activist, became the buzz of the beekeeping community after sharing his creation online, the Westmeath Independent reports.

O Leocháin, who runs Athlone’s Wildlife Apiaries, has racked more than 100,000 views on his video of the hive and says fellow beekeepers around the world are asking for guides on how to make their own.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting such a big reaction,” he told the outlet.

“I have had people getting in touch with me from China, America and elsewhere saying that they love the idea.”

O Leocháin said he started the project just for fun about two months ago and didn’t have a coherent plan for building the hive as he began stacking the toy bricks.

“I had the idea before COVID-19, so when that happened I thought I would order a load of Lego and see what happens with it,” he told the Independent. “I’ve been making it bit-by-bit over the last eight weeks or so.”

O Leocháin managed to build the toy hive while comparing it side-by-side to the real thing, he said.

The colorful digs are now home to about 30,000 native Irish black bees, with the population expected to double at the peak of summer, according to O Leocháin.

He added that he didn’t use any glue to hold the bricks in place, but that the bees would actually work to seal up the structure themselves.

“What the bees will do, given enough time, is they will propolize the whole thing,” O Leocháin went on. “Propolis is a kind of glue that the bees get from trees, and with any gaps in a beehive, with any wind or air getting through, they will basically put their glue in between to seal it up.”