There’s been plenty of variety of tasks for beekeepers in May with changeable weather, swarming, Royal visitors to greet and training initiatives. Ethel Irvine of Fermanagh Beekeepers’ Association (FBKA) reports;

“May, in Fermanagh, has been cooler than beekeepers would have wished but its flowers have given bees the boost with the incoming pollen and nectar necessary to build very strong colonies for July, when most of us will hope to get our main crop of honey.

It is always lovely to see the red pollen from the chestnut and know that the sycamore is not far behind.

Dominant blossom

The Whitethorn has not been given the name Mayflower for no reason. It is certainly the dominant blossom in fields and hedgerows in the middle of May. The trees near my apiary do not always yield nectar and quite often the weather does not cooperate so that it is rare that my bees make hawthorn (yet another name) honey.

I was afraid that this year was going to be another blank but for a couple of days the bees feasted on the flowers and the rich sweet smell in the apiary signified the ripening of hawthorn honey.

They joined the numerous hoverflies and other flies in its pollination, ensuring a bumper supply of haws for the birds next autumn. Another pollinator which I saw on aquilegia in the middle of May was the hummingbird hawk moth, a fairly rare but welcome sight. This was very early for this large moth which is does not overwinter here and I suppose it’s another sign of our changing climate.

The hot weather at the end of May saw bees foraging strongly. We have a couple of cotoneaster horizontalis close to our back door and the hum of a myriad of insects leaves visitors nervous until they are assured that the bees are so busy foraging that they take no notice.

Foragers

What we have remarked upon is that, suddenly, the foragers leave and will return when the shrubs are watered. These particular shrubs are self-seeded in very shallow soil.

This has occurred twice already during this hot weather and emphasises how plants are dependent upon environmental conditions to be able to produce the lure i.e. the nectar, which results in their pollination.

Our large colonies have certainly meant that swarming has been earlier than usual in Fermanagh. Our main concern has been inspecting our colonies regularly for queen cells and carrying out swarm control when needed.

A swarm of bees may be alarming to non-beekeepers who do not understand that bees in a swarm are at their calmest as they leave the hive because they take with them the only thing they can carry i.e. liquid stores in their honey crops. They have nothing to defend – no brood nest and no stores - and so are usually not a danger to man or beast.

To the beekeeper, the swarm can mean that a great part of the forging force is lost with, perhaps, an excellent queen in its midst. If the queen’s wings are clipped, she will not be able to fly any distance and, as soon as the bees realise they have no queen, they will return to the parent colony to await the emergence of the first virgin queen from her cell, when they will try again.

The colony can be artificially swarmed but a frame of brood with a good queen cell will have to replace that with the queen on it, if the original clipped and marked queen cannot be found. There will be an extended brood break while the queen cell hatches, the virgin mates and begins to lay.

Rate of reproduction

Timings of actions will have to be altered but on the plus side this brood break will mean that the rate of reproduction of the Varroa mite will be reduced.

Be aware that the ‘June gap’ is coming up and although the bramble looks like being early, stores in these large colonies should be monitored carefully especially if the weather changes.

FBKA are grateful to David Bolton for all his work with the wild bee project and for the following report on its progress:

This column has previously reported on the Fermanagh Beekeepers Wild Bee Project which commenced in 2019.

The pandemic interrupted some of the earlier phases and the monitoring of some locations.

However, good progress has been made and there are currently 16 specially made wild bee boxes in various locations across Fermanagh. The Enniskillen Men’s Shed made four of the boxes for which the Association is most grateful.

The aims of the project are to support the wild honeybee population and in particular those wild colonies that have shown adaptation to living with the parasite, Varroa. Almost 30 years ago varroa found its way to Ireland and it had a devastating impact on both the wild and managed honeybee population.

At one point it seemed that honeybees would never again survive without human management. Once again however, nature demonstrated her resilience and gradually news came through of colonies living and thriving in the wild - with no human intervention. In time it became clear that wild colonies were adapting to live with or to resist Varroa.

We would be interested to know of wild colonies. If you are aware of a honeybee colony living in a building, tree or other location, please let us know. We would be delighted to hear from you. Send an email to info.fermanaghbeekeepers@gmail.co or leave a message on the Association’s Facebook page.

King Charles

Fermanagh Beekeepers’ Association was one of the many groups to have the privilege to be invited to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla when they visited Fermanagh. FBKA was represented by two Executive members of Committee who brought with them an observation hive and a wide range of the products of the hive, supplied by members of the Association.

King Charles discussed the ongoing efforts to conserve apis mellifera mellifera i.e. the black bee, showing that he was familiar with the threats to it while Queen Camilla displayed her familiarity with the occupants of the hive and their various roles as she viewed the observation hive.

Invited

This was just one of the events which FBKA was invited to attend during May. We attended the May 8th Celebration of Volunteers at Enniskillen Castle.

The Lakeland Queen Rearing Group swung into action again this May with quite a few new members anxious to improve their beekeeping skills and to learn techniques of queen rearing which can easily be practiced in their own apiary.

The group thanks the Native Irish Honey Bee Society for their support and for the donation of an apis mellifera mellifera queen which be the donor of the eggs from which the queens will be raised. Thomas McCaffrey once again is the mentor for the group.

The practical instruction at the hives sessions for the ‘Introduction to Beekeeping’ have been completed, as has the assessment of the students’ skills.

Together with the workbooks which the students completed and submitted for assessment, this completes the requirements of the course.

The next meeting of FBKA will be the Annual Barbecue on Thursday, June 29 at around 7.30pm at the Apiary site.

This is a change from our practice of having the barbecue on a Saturday as we hope that those who might have family commitments or work at the weekend will be able to attend.