Its all about the Queen Bee: Conservation of our Native Irish Honeybees
Updated: 2 days ago
June 2023 by Gwen Earnshaw
The silly swarm season has been well and truly upon us for a while now, and the Queen Rearing Group for The Killinchy Beekeepers Association began its activities again last month.
Its been all go, and we now have our first set of Queen Bees in the apidea mating boxes and the second set of Queen cells tucked up snug in an incubator - due to hopefully hatch this Friday.
If you have ever been involved in Queen rearing, you’ll know the satisfaction we are feeling so far!
The hardest part of our endeavour has been to maintain a huge colony of honeybees, on the verge of swarming, and yet NOT have it swarm…!
The second hardest thing (yes it goes on…) is stopping the honeybees from absconding from the apidea boxes ... to where they go .... who knows!
All in all, it’s safe to say that it’s all ALOT harder than it sounds, but we are a tenacious bunch of beeks and still rearing to go!
Our Queen Rearing Group was formed in the winter of 2021, with a small number of keen committee members and in collaboration with the Native Irish Honeybee Society's, Queen rearing program (1).
This incredible program is run over 2 years and has given us 2 winters of online lectures with expert beekeepers including, Jonathan Getty and Colm O’Neill.
It has provided all the start up equipment we needed, given ongoing mentorship and even supplied a Nuc of quality Apis mellifera mellifera (Amm) bees for us to breed our first Queens from.
Not having had a Queen Rearing Group within our Association before and to just get the group started, we’ve tried to keep our goals quite simple.
Over last year and this year, we’ve been learning and getting better at the various techniques of raising Queen Bees.
To produce the best Queens and, in bigger numbers, they are raised from just 72 hr old larvae, grafted into a starter-finisher colony and then open mated from apidea boxes.
A starter-finisher colony is essentially a very strong double brood box Queen right colony.
Just before the grafts are ready to be inserted, the upper box is made temporarily Queen-less with the use of a cloake board.
Once the nurse bees have accepted the larvae and started the cells, the cloake board is then removed - making the colony Queen right again. The bees will then continue to care for the cells as if they were supercedure cells.
In the coming years, we hope to focus further on bee improvement - that is the production of Queen Bees that make great colonies of honeybees, that are also gentle to work with AND don’t have a tendency to swarm.
We would like to further expand the size of our little group, to offer teaching to interested members and also produce enough Queens to be able to offer members, within our conservation area and beyond…
Fantastic Queens- who wouldn’t like that!
The Native Irish Honeybee Society or NIHBS was established in November 2012 by a group of beekeepers who wished to support the various strains of the Native Irish Honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera) throughout the country.
It is a cross-border organisation, open to all and consists of members and representatives from all corners of Ireland.
One of the many aims and objectives of NIHBS is to establish conservation areas of Amm throughout Ireland and last month we were pleased to announce that in collaboration with the Lindsay family, who are the owners of Finnebrogue Estate and Fodder (2) near Downpatrick, we have been able to establish a Conservation Area around our own Association apiary site.
Having a conservation area is essential to be able to preserve the genetics of our Amm honeybees within this area.
As new virgin Queens take their mating flights in the open, we are keen that the drones they meet in this process are also of good Amm genetics.
Sadly, these days, it just takes one quick click on a keyboard to import any kind of Queen or package of bees into our little corner of Northern Ireland.
Honeybee and Queen imports are source of disease and parasites. Their non- native genetics are spread by their drone bees as they mate with our native Queens - further weakening the gene pool of any Amm that we already have in existence here.
Incidentally, it is mandatory to notify DAERA (3) before you import ANY honeybees into Northern Ireland.
It is a key principle of NIHBS is not to support imports of honeybees for these reasons and, we also agree that locally adapted Amm bees are the best way forward for sustainable beekeeping practice.
Do you keep honeybees or know of beekeepers within or close to Downpatrick/ Killyleagh?
If you are reading this and not familiar with the area, it is in rural County Down, Northern Ireland, just to the west of Strangford Lough, North of Downpatrick and South of Killyleagh.
If you keep colonies within or near this area, we would really appreciate you getting in touch for a friendly chat about your bees.
We hope you’ll work with us towards our aims- and perhaps consider joining our group.
Any information you share will be treated confidentially and shared only with the key committee members involved.
Our approach is to encourage and support beekeepers. As part of this, we intend to offer surplus native Irish black bee queens (Apis mellifera mellifera, or Amm), when available, to members supporting the project.
We will also provide guidance and practical support throughout the queen introduction process.
By working together, we can support one another and help secure a future for our native honeybees- a lovely outcome for bees and beekeepers alike.
Many thanks for reading, we wish you lots of success with your own Honeybees and Queens this season and may the weather be wonderful!
If you need any more info, have any questions or would like to be involved then please don't hesitate to comment, reply or contact us.
1) The Native Irish Honeybee Society https://nihbs.org/
2) Fodder (for the best Farm Shop, Cafe, Tipi and Trails) https://www.fodderni.com/
Wonderful images with thanks to Conall McCaughey
#beekeeping #bees #honeybees #beekeeper #nativeirishhoneybees #conservation #queens #queenrearing #queenbees #Apismelliferamellifera #NorthernIreland
Comments