Beekeeping in Ireland
[4] The growth in the practice has occurred despite increased pressures on bees and beekeepers due to habitat loss, parasites and diseases, which has contributed to deaths approaching half of all honeybees in Ireland.
[6] However the current academic consensus is that this could not have occurred, because there was no land bridge between the two islands, based on computer models and marine geological evidence.
[17] The Old Irish language includes the Latin loanword for beeswax céir, from the Latin ceris (only small amounts of wax can be obtained from the nests of bumble bees), suggesting the presence of honeybees near to the arrival of Christianity in 430 AD, and then for the word beehive lestar which may also be derived from a Welsh word, suggesting beekeeping was probably not established until the 5th or 6th centuries.
[17] This time frame matches with the legend of St. Modomnoc, whom it is claimed first brought bees to Ireland from Wales in the early 540s, just as the extreme weather events of 535–536 were subsiding.
[20] In the 1870s, Brother Joseph, a Carmelite friar from Loughrea, imported a bar and frame hive from London and then began to produce his own versions.
By 1927 the Irish Beekeepers Association (IBA) requested the government to adopt a restocking scheme for re-population and for "importation of (resistant) Queen Bees for re-sale at reduced prices."
[28] In 1945, Brother Adam, the breeder of the Buckfast bee, obtained "pure native" Old Irish Black Bee queens that had survived the Acarine epidemic "from a secluded place in the far west of Ireland," from which he raised virgin Queens and then crossed them with his Buckfast drones known to be resistant to Acarine, at his isolated Closed Mating Station on Dartmoor.
In 1983 Brother Adam wrote, "the old English (and by inference Irish) brown bee... lives today only in the memory... and was completely wiped out.
[32] Both the Republic of Ireland[35] and the U.K.[36] (which Northern Ireland is part of) are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity,[37] and as such officially have adopted the international definitions of an "Alien (Non-Native) Species... (as) a subspecies... introduced... outside its natural or present distribution... by human agency", and also an "Invasive Alien (Non-Native) Species... whose introduction... threaten biological diversity".
The fact that Varroa has shown resistance to previously effective treatments can result in regional losses as high as 40–60%.
[49] In another case of surviving untreated colonies, the Varroa acts as a host to a non-lethal Deformed Wing Virus (DWV).
GBBG, NIHBS and FIBKA have breeding programs to do this "by observing the number of damaged mites", without DNA analysis nor the use of instrumental insemination.
UKBA and government officials worked closely to bring this about, initially the 1945 Act also included Acarine and Nosema as notifiable diseases reflecting their devastating effects on bee populations at the time.
Bee Inspectors have been appointed to regularly inspect beehives and testing facilities have been established for beekeepers to have the contents of their hives diagnosed for disease.
The Vespa velutina will readily predate on Apis mellifera hives, which are unable to defend themselves against their attacks, resulting in significant deaths, and potential collapse of the colonies.
There was no evidence of a nest in the area and the hornets' point of entry was believed to be via a nearby international transportation hub.
[78][79] DNA analysis later concluded that the Vespa velutina was an accidental import from Britain or Europe and not from an established Irish nest.
The research also confirmed that all Vespa velutina within Europe presently are descended from one mated queen imported from China into France 2004, showing the possibility of Asian hornets becoming established in Ireland from only one queen, although it is doubtful that the Irish weather would enable a viable population to develop, but continued climate change will likely facilitate this.
At the 14th Annual Conference in 1959 a lecture was given entitled "How to take advantage of the Buckfast strain of bees, to be shortly introduced into Northern Ireland".
At the 15th Annual Conference in 1960 a member of the Ministry of Agriculture gave the lecture "The Buckfast Strain of Honeybee and its dissemination throughout Northern Ireland".
[85] In 1966, the FIBKA raised the subject of forming an All-Ireland Beekeepers' Alliance but the UBKA unanimously rejected the suggestion, opting instead to support continued co-operation.
[96][97] The FIBKA publishes a monthly newsletter called An Beachaire covering many subjects related to beekeeping, which is made available online to members only.
The members "hope to create an environment of mutual respect and understanding, so that no beekeeper ever feels marginalised or ostracised because of the type of bee they keep".
[101] The IBA regularly publishes Newsletters covering many subjects related to beekeeping, which it makes freely available online to all, including non-members.
[109] The NIHBS also maintains that "The native Irish honey bee is part of the subspecies that evolved in northwestern Europe", while the A. m. mellifera actually evolved in central Asia and migrated into northern Europe after the last ice age,[110] they also claim that "research...confirmed unambiguously in 2018 that it is genetically distinctive", for a bee to be a distinct part of a subspecies, an ecotype or haplotype would need to have been identified, to date the only identifiable genetic characteristic that has been observed is the Dutch haplotype from which the NIHBS bees are descended.
[122] In November 2022, the Bill passed to its Third reading, the argument for the Bill was reiterated, "with the aim of reducing the threat to.. biodiversity and the ecosystem arising from the introgression of the.. Apis mellifera mellifera, due to the importation of non-native species or sub-species..",[123] in response "the advice from the Attorney General (was) that the legal and / or scientific basis to impose a full (importation) ban on all other species of (honey) bee has not at this point been established with the required certainty", the Minister, reading from a pre-prepared statement went on to say that "scientific assessment is required to substantiate the specific measure proposed in the Bill" and cited the lack of "independent scientific evidence", therefore rejecting the claims made by the NIHBS.
Tenderers needed to show clearly that they could deal with the precise requests of the Department, not merely providing an "affirmative statement", citing "peer reviewed journals and ...international scientific research".
[129] The UBKA in conjunction with CAFRE, runs an Open College Network Northern Ireland (OCN NI) endorsed beekeeping course and intends to develop higher level studies in the near future, this education is now independent from FIBKA.
It is a registered charity (number – GB-NI-100709) with six trustees who are elected officers, reporting to an executive which is made up of representatives from the local associations.
An article by Michael Mac Giolla Coda[135] stated, "the gene pool has been greatly reduced by the decimation of all the wild colonies (due to Varroa destructor)" another claim was "We never had a problem with queen failure until the arrival of Varroa," another article published by Jonathan Getty[136] stated "The gene pool has been drastically reduced by the Varroa mite" another claim was that the NIHBS bees "have developed resistance to many bee diseases" due to "the Irish climate."
