Native Irish Honey bee Society

[Peter]

At last! BIBBA have been spurred into action by their funders, eh?
I think the Irish idea of leading by example rather than pushing small groups to do it for themselves has proved more workable. I feel the Irish have left BIBBA behind long ago, hence the need for their own society and good look to ‘em. Maybe this will spur BIBBA into pro-action and I won’t have to feel apologetic for being an AMM fancier.

Far from it! BIBBA managed to get funding for Project Discovery - BIBBA driven, not funder driven.

I agree that the Irish have done well - Micheal Mac has been a shining example - but it could be argued that the rest of us might have done equally well if we had started from the same position i.e. virtually wall-to-wall A.m.m. What luxury that would have been!

BIBBA also played a significant role in helping the Irish in the early days.

[Jon]

Micheál Mac Giolla Coda is still very supportive of Bibba and he makes that clear.
Bibba members get a 10% discount on his queens.

Peter, we don't have wall to wall AMM in the North of Ireland.
Most people around Belfast have swarmy yellowish mongrels and there are still imports of Buckfast and Carnica coming in here.
In my opinion the swarminess is a legacy of bee supply being based on distributing swarms and queen rearing being based on whatever queen cells appear - so effectively there has been a selection pressure in favour of swarmy bees
There was a lot of Buckfast came in during the 70s and 80s and it was being actively promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture at that time.

My stock is a mixture of bees I got from my father, a couple of swarms I collected locally and more recently some Galtee genetics via a couple of swaps.
You have to work hard to keep your stock pure and make sure you have a mating site swamped with your drones.
I have not had to purchase a queen bee yet although I am going to buy some Galtee queens this year for members of the queen rearing group.

[Peter]

Hi Jon

Yes, I know he is very supportive and that is very much appreciated by all of us.

Sorry - was not suggesting that the situation in the North is easy, I was thinking of the huge survey that Galtee did on wing morphometry in their early days - quite an amazing exercise and it showed that there was a great deal of good stock available. I go green everytime that I think of it!

Of course, the situation is probably much the same in large areas of Scotland and in parts of Wales, but the situation in much of England should ring alarm bells for eveoryone.

What I just do not understand is why in parts of Europe the government controls the type of bee kept in certain areas, hence preserving their native stock - yet the UK government seems paralysed into inactivity.

[Beefever]

BIBBA driven, not funder driven.
Thanks for correcting me on that Peter. I’m pleased things are moving in a forwards direction, whoever initiated it.
I must be at the “disenchanted” stage in my membership!
But I won't give up!

[Jon]

nihbs-banner.jpg

Two of the native bee mafia with the new banner at the UBKA conference at Greenmount.

[brothermoo]

Are they trying to hide behind the banner?

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[Jon]

They were hiding behind it and came out when they thought I had finished taking photos.

[keith pierce]

two handsome looking chaps

[gavin]

But we have very little of that going on - and the word seems to be (sorry if I'm wrong) that even the Moray initiative, sold to funders on the basis of conserving local stocks, is going to be importing Buckfast bees.

Well, it seems that I wasn't entirely right there and so I'd like to apologise to the Moray beekeepers. I'm assured that they are intending to breed from local (but not Amm) stocks, and will be buying additional commercial nucs that have a UK origin .... plus Buckfast queens for their association apiary. That last bit in particular I still think is unwise and may ultimately lead to worse (bee!) temper as they mix with other local stocks (and vice versa, as always), but hey!, I'm trying to apologise for implying that the Moray initiative is switching to Buckfast breeding.

[brothermoo]

I'm assured that they are intending to breed from local (but not Amm) stocks, and will be buying additional commercial nucs that have a UK origin .... plus Buckfast queens for their association apiary.

How far from their breeding site is the association apiary? If they have a remote area it might work, bit to what end if they aren't wanting to replace current stocks with local bees?



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