Native Bee | Beespoke Info

Native Irish Honey Bee Book

Gimlet — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 19:13:38 +0000

This book is a collaborative work with contributions from expert beekeepers and scientists throughout Ireland.

Native Irish Honey Bee Book

It contains everything you need to know about the Native Irish Honey Bee – from evolution to genetics and into the future with conservation and ‘how to’ sections from commercial beekeepers.

Includes a practical section with step by step instructions on queen rearing and bee-breeding techniques.

Click here to re-watch the book launch

Click here to buy the Native Irish Honey Bee Book

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SICAMM 2020 Conference

Gimlet — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 13:58:02 +0000

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How do I know if my hive is queenless?

Gimlet — Sat, 20 Jul 2019 13:47:45 +0000

Unless you killed the queen yourself, or saw her die, you can’t be certain the bees are queenless unless you test them. Here is the simple queenlessness test.

But before you test the bees – always check she’s not in the supers! Even with an excluder in place, it’s surprising how often the queen can find her way upstairs and build a lovely brood nest in the honey.

Also consider just how long it takes for the bees to make a new queen cell from scratch, for the virgin to emerge, to mature, to get mated and to start laying. Remember, the weather has a lot to do with how quickly she can get mated.

Look at the diagram below and use it to manage your expectations. Don’t panic till week 6.

Queen rearing timeline

If you still think your bees have no queen – here is the test for queenlessness:

Queenlessness test

Make absolutely sure there aren’t already queencells tucked away somewhere;
Add in a frame of young larvae (<3 days old) from a different colony. Nurse bees will sometimes eat the eggs of other bees but will happily draw emergency cells from small larvae;
Come back in a week;
If there are no queen cells they either have a queen or they think they have a queen, there is a difference; they could have a drone laying queen or laying workers (see below);
If there are queen cells – they are queenless;
Remove the queen cells and the colony is now hopelessly queenless and should be ready to accept a new queen using the method of your choice.

Drone laying queens

A drone laying queen is a queen that didn’t mate properly and her spermatheca has run dry. That’ s the little vessel inside herself where she stores the sperm from when she got mated – each time she lays a worker egg, she fertilises it with sperm from the spermatheca. If it runs dry she can only lay unfertilised eggs and these, of course, become drones. Because she lays drone eggs into worker cells the drone larvae rapidly outgrow the cells and the result is horribly distorted comb.

If you have a drone laying queen you will have to find her and kill her. Once you’ve done that you can introduce a new queen.

Laying workers

When a hive has been queenless for a while, the broodless state causes one, or some, of the younger workers to start laying eggs. Of course these workers have never mated so can only lay unfertilised eggs which will hatch as drones.

The egg laying pattern of laying workers tends to be crappy and there may be several eggs scattered in each cell.

The best thing to do in this case is to add in one or two frames of young larvae (from another hive). This tends to rewind the situation, the laying workers are ‘reset’ and you can introduce a new queen.

Click here for how to introduce a new queen

Click here for how to introduce a queen using the matchbox method

Click here for how to introduce a queen using the postal cage

Click here for how to introduce a queen to an Apidea

The post How do I know if my hive is queenless? first appeared on Beespoke Info.

Queen Rearing Timetable for Cloake Board & Jenter Kit

Gimlet — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 15:40:29 +0000

It’s easy to get confused when setting up your queen rearing – I know – I’ve been there.

But don’t panic, this simple-to-use timetable/diagram below is for queen rearing using the Cloake board method with a Jenter kit. However, if you prefer to graft or the queen won’t play ball with the Jenter – all is not lost – just graft the smallest larvae you can find on day 8 and all should be well.

Good luck!

By the way, the header photo is of the Lewis chessmen – found on the island of Lewis, Scotland in 1831. They were made from walrus tusks and whale teeth in Norway or perhaps Iceland in the 12th century.

Their queen rearing is not going well. He thinks she’s to blame. She thinks she’s to blame. Meanwhile the bishop wonders if it could be something to do with his grafting tool. It does look a bit on the clonky side.

Click the timetable for a bigger picture.

Queen Rearing Timetable for use with Jenter Kit and Cloake Board

Start on day 0 with setting up the Cloake board system.

Click here for full instructions on how to set up your Cloake board system.

Jenter kit set up starts on Day 2.

Click here for full instructions on how to use your Jenter kit

Click here for Queen Rearing Timeline.

Click here for how to set up an Apidea

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Perfect Supersedure

Gimlet — Sun, 26 May 2019 08:35:28 +0000

Supersedure is a characteristic of the native Irish honey bee. It is where the bees replace an ageing or waning queen without swarming.

Perfect supersedure is where the old honey bee queen obligingly remains in-situ, laying to the best of her abilities, until the new queen is up and running – before gracefully fizzling out.

This is a sought-after trait for obvious reasons and if you find it in one of your colonies you should definitely factor it in to your bee improvement assessments. Click here for Bee Improvement and to download Assessment sheets.

Here are some fuzzy photo’s of a perfect supersedure in one of our hives yesterday (20.5.19)

Native Irish Honey Bee Supersedure

Click here for Fighting Queen Bees

Click here for Piping Queen Bees

Click here for How to Improve your Bees

Click here for more about the life cycle of honey bees

Click here for more about the Queen Bee

Click here for Swarm Control

Click here for Swarm Prevention

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NIHBS 2019 Conference

Gimlet — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 13:20:01 +0000

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Irish Native Queen & Nuc Suppliers

Gimlet — Wed, 10 Jan 2018 19:31:58 +0000

Return of the Native

Click here for updated list of Irish Native Honey Bee suppliers

Click here for more about the Native Irish Honey Bee

Native Bee Suppliers 2019

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Noxious Weeds!

Gimlet — Mon, 06 Mar 2017 21:16:27 +0000

You know how we all go on about how there’s a law out there that says farmers should remove ragwort from their land or face the consequences?

Well beekeepers, read this and weep – the full list of ‘Invasive Species and Noxious Weeds’ as specified by the Department of Agriculture is as follows:

"...Invasive Species & Noxious Weeds

Ragwort, Thistle, Dock, Common Barberry, Male Wild Hop and Wild Oat are noxious weeds under the Noxious Weeds Act 1936

Invasive species include Rhododendron, Giant Hogweed, Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam as well as the invading hardwood species e.g. Hawthorn, briars, furze/gorse, Elder and Willow...."

This is taken not directly from the 1936 Act, but from the Cross Compliance Handbook for farmers from the Department of Agriculture. Click here to download that disturbing document

I don’t know about you but it leaves me wondering whether to make a big noise about it or just keep quiet because rather a lot of those species – especially the natives – are vital to our bees and all those wild pollinators out there – for the moment anyway.

And here’s a thought – landowners are not allowed to remove a hedgerow unless they plant a replacement hedge first. Hmmm.

They are also not allowed to remove a line of trees across a field. Being as hawthorn and willow are categorised here not as trees but ‘invading hardwood species’ in the Cross Compliance Handbook – does that mean landowners can remove a row of hawthorns?

Where does that leave us?

Here are some links for you. The first two are particularly important if you want to understand the current wave of hedgerow mutilation and scrub destruction.

Click here to download the Cross Compliance Handbook for farmers from the Department of Agriculture.

Click here to download the Land Eligibility Booklet from the Department of Agriculture

Click here for the stupid Heritage Bill

Click here for February Bee Flowers

Click here for March Bee Flowers

Click here for April Bee Flowers

Click here for May Bee Flowers

Click here for June Bee Flowers

Click here for July Bee Flowers

Click here for August Bee Flowers

Click here for September Bee Flowers

Click here for October Bee Flowers

Click here for November Bee Flowers

Click here for more about Gorse

Click here for a general seasonal guide to important bee flowers

Click here for photos of pollen load colours

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Bee Flowers – February

Gimlet — Wed, 01 Feb 2017 12:07:10 +0000

February 1st is the Feast Day of St Brigid (AD450-525) female patron saint of Ireland.

For us Celts it is also the first day of Spring but you Saxon Dogs will have to wait till March 20th!

For the bees though – read on:

There are a few hardy plants that flower in early spring but only the willow (Salix spp) can produce enough nectar for a small surplus and only in a very warm spring.

Of course the Native bee will forage at lower temperatures and is better able to take advantage of what little fresh nectar and pollen is available.

Until today – I’ve never seen a bee on a dandelion and didn’t really believe they found them interesting but here’s the evidence they do and the pollen loads are yellow:

Yellow daffodil pollen

The table below shows some possible bee flowers for February. Green lines are Irish natives. Click it for a better view:

Some bee flowers for February