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Although honey production has been poor, at least there were good days for bees during the period when the ivy was in flower. Honeybees took in quite a bit of nectar from it and stored it as honey. The brood chambers of the hives were packed with ivy honey but no excess was produced for the beekeeper to harvest. Right now the hives are heavy, which is all that is needed as the bees face into the winter. However, the ivy honey will crystallise in the hive and may be difficult for bees to use next spring.
Beekeepers will need to be aware of the problem of “stores locking”, where bees are unable to remove this solid honey from the cells of the honeycomb in order that the queen will have somewhere to lay her eggs. Any delay in dealing with this problem will lead to a weak colony of bees, simply because there is no place to rear the numbers.
Beekeepers, like other farmers, will look back on the year, analysing the pitfalls as well as the successes. There are always things which are outside our control and the ability to side track or re-invent oneself is an art in survival. Thankfully, the holly is laden with berries this year, simply because the bees worked it really well during bloom earlier in the year, ensuring pollination. Christmas is saved. To survive in beekeeping during a year like this, takes luck. R. O. B. Manley, a well-known British bee-farmer, once said: “There is no problem in keeping bees; the difficult bit is to get the bees to keep you”.
I went thumbing through some beekeeping magazines from twenty years ago to see what we beekeepers were thinking, saying and facing. The first big topic was the discovery of the “Varroa mite”, in county Sligo in 1998 and its subsequent spread throughout the country, despite the efforts of the Department of Agriculture and Food to eradicate it. Irish beekeepers, like many across Europe, had to learn to contend with it.
Twenty years ago the weather was also having an effect on the honey harvest. One commentator at the time noted that beekeeping was a barometer of changing conditions in the countryside and elsewhere, where human activities greatly eroded world biodiversity. Collection and analysis of pollens for environmental toxins was under discussion.
The spread of honeybee diseases was on the agenda, given that the Varroa mite was now established in Ireland and its spread was being aided by beekeepers themselves. This also applied to other bee diseases. We humans tend to be our own worst enemies.
The “dark native bee” in Ireland had its followers, with the formation of a group called “The Galtee Bee Breeders Association”, whose aims were to protect and promote this bee due to its suitability to Irish climatic conditions. This bee is now the cornerstone in Irish beekeeping.
It is here in its pure form but faces dilution due to the fact that imports of other strains of bee are not forbidden in the EU. When the horse has bolted is not the time to close the stable door. CL
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