Originally Posted by
Jon
I had a really interesting conversation last week with a guy from the far western extreme of Donegal.
They have 70 colonies of dark bees in the area and varroa has not arrived yet.
I was unaware that Ireland had any varroa free areas left.
The mites arrives in Sligo/Leitrim in 1998.
No outside colonies have come into the area in living memory and the guy I spoke to is the only beekeeper under 65
There are still feral colonies in the trees.
I spoke to one of the other NIHBS reps about this and we are going to go down and take grafts in a couple of months or ideally get a mated queen to bring back home to graft from.
He said the bees have never been surveyed either.