Got an IPhone? You Got A Bee Beard.

Irish cider maker Magners launches a free iPhone app as part of its “bee aid” campaign to help save urban bees.

For every download of the app, Magners will make a donation of 50 bees to the British Beekeepers Association and the Federation of Irish Beekeepers.

Another 50 bees will be donated each time users “like” the Magners Facebook page.

Magners’ “bee aid” campaign aims to save 1.5 million urban bees in the UK and Ireland.

“Magners loves bees,” the company says in a statement. “We love their friendly nature and their dress sense, but most of all we love that they pollinate the apples we use to craft our delicious cider. However, with numbers falling all across the UK we need your help.”

Magners cider is made from a blend of 17 varieties of apples.

“Magners understands just how important bees are,” Head of marketing Kirsty Hunter says. “After all it’s the bees that pollinate the apples in the Magners orchards which are blended and crafted to make Magners Original cider – so without the bees there simply wouldn’t be any Magners.

“In Clomell, Co. Tipperary, the home of Irish cider, we have a specialist beekeeper who keeps his hives in our orchards. This dedication means the bees pollinate the apples, which in turn ensures we can make great tasting cider.”

The free Bee Beard app is based on the latest Magners TV ad that launched in April, featuring Eamon, the Clonmel beekeeper. It shows Eamon having a bath, going to the bakery and catching a bus, all with his beard of bees. At the end, he reaches the apple orchard and sends them off to work while he enjoys a sandwich.

App users can overlay a virtual beard of bees on a picture of themselves in six different styles…a full beard without mustache, a waxed mustache, a goatee (called The Beehive), full beard with mustache, a mustache with chin whiskers and full sideburns. Use either a photo already taken, or take a new photo, line up the chin and mouth with the onscreen guides, choose the bee beard style you want, and push the button. Instantly, hundreds of bees fly onto the screen and line themselves up in the style you choose. Save the photo of the beebearded person, then keep or send from your phone. You can download to facebook, send in an email…or keep for later. And best of all…It’s FREE! Find the app at the ITunes store, under entertainment, search for Magner's Cider.

The company has teamed up with the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) and the Federation of Irish Beekeepers Associations (FIBKA) to offer 25 Magners Facebook fans the chance to become fully-fledged urban beekeepers.

The winners will get an urban beekeeping scholarship from the BBKA and FIBKA that will train, educate and provide them with everything they need in order to create an urban hive and look after a bee colony of their own.