What is the racial mix of honeybees in Ireland?

Reesy

Hi,

Now, before we start, this thread is NOT (please) about which bees are best for Ireland, or whether we should all breed black bees or buckfast or whatever. It's an interesting topic, but somewhere else please.

I'm interested in authoritative scientific info on the races of bees in Ireland. Here's what I think I know so far:

• When I collect swarms in Dublin / Wicklow, they tend to be all sorts, i.e. all shades from golden to black
• There are a few organisations breeding and selling Northern European Black (Apis Mellifera mellifera, or AMm) bees - though it's hard to be 100% sure how racially pure the bees are (any DNA / morphometric reports?)
• Some beekeepers claim to be using & breeding buckfast or carniolan bees - ditto the purity comment above
• Some years ago, a Young Scientist competition team did a morphometric analysis of honeybees & found that they were far more mongrelused than had hitherto been thought
• We now have the Native Irish Honeybee Society, dedicated to promoting AMm.

So the purpose of this thread is to try establish one or two ground truths that might inform other debates, without (one again!) getting into the debate here.

Anyone?

conor t

Reesy wrote: »

Hi,

Now, before we start, this thread is NOT (please) about which bees are best for Ireland, or whether we should all breed black bees or buckfast or whatever. It's an interesting topic, but somewhere else please.

I'm interested in authoritative scientific info on the races of bees in Ireland. Here's what I think I know so far:

• When I collect swarms in Dublin / Wicklow, they tend to be all sorts, i.e. all shades from golden to black
• There are a few organisations breeding and selling Northern European Black (Apis Mellifera mellifera, or AMm) bees - though it's hard to be 100% sure how racially pure the bees are (any DNA / morphometric reports?)
• Some beekeepers claim to be using & breeding buckfast or carniolan bees - ditto the purity comment above
• Some years ago, a Young Scientist competition team did a morphometric analysis of honeybees & found that they were far more mongrelused than had hitherto been thought
• We now have the Native Irish Honeybee Society, dedicated to promoting AMm.

So the purpose of this thread is to try establish one or two ground truths that might inform other debates, without (one again!) getting into the debate here.

Anyone?

If your asking can a race be kept pure, I think the answer is yes if you put in a bit of effort, drone raising, isolated mating, ai and possibly 'moonlight mating'. But whether the bees are pure to start with is another question, fairly sure nihbs/galtee have done DNA analysis and morphometry, if you had Italian, buckfast etc you would have bought bees off a breeder so they should be pure

lucylu

OP I am not sure if this info is available as of yet..
Mary Coffey from Teagasc/ UL is carrying out a study called
2013-2016 Apiculture Programme and are are carrying out a national survey to assess the prevalence of disease in colonies and to determine the racial status of the Irish honeybee population.
The results from this survey will identify for the first time the prevalence of diseases in Irish honeybee colonies which will not only contribute to the eduational programme which FIBKA provides and but also assist all beekeepers in their routine management of their colonies especially in relation to disease control. In addtion the research will also provide FIBKA with statistical reliable data to justify the authorisation of additional bee medicine if proved necessary and the racial status data will provide justification for FIBKA's policy on imports and support any application to establish Ireland as a conservation area if pure strains of Apis mellifera mellifera are identified.

This is a 2 year study.

solargain

The only thing Mary Coffeys study will do is keep the apiary in Teagasc going until 2016 . All the grant money from Europe went into her study, I don't see how it will contribute to FIBKAs educational system, it has no relevence there, she is retesting MAPQS strips even though the same testing was done in the Uk , nothing new there either. The sample of bees have to be sent abroad for testing for DNA

FIBKA does not have a policy on imports and EU legislation states that beekeepers have a right to import with a licence , its the department of Agriculture controls that

In other countries the money made its way down to the beekeepers to help out the beekeepers on the ground.

conor t

solargain wrote: »

The only thing Mary Coffeys study will do is keep the apiary in Teagasc going until 2016 . All the grant money from Europe went into her study, I don't see how it will contribute to FIBKAs educational system, it has no relevence there, she is retesting MAPQS strips even though the same testing was done in the Uk , nothing new there either. The sample of bees have to be sent abroad for testing for DNA

FIBKA does not have a policy on imports and EU legislation states that beekeepers have a right to import with a licence , its the department of Agriculture controls that

In other countries the money made its way down to the beekeepers to help out the beekeepers on the ground.

+1 she's a waste of time and money.
Hasn't DNA testing already been done to confirm there's pure amm strains.
Getting imports banned in order to preserve amm is a dream, there is no fear of it happening because of eu, even if it did happen drone semen could be imported so its not as if foreign strains would no longer be viable

Reesy

conor t wrote: »

Hasn't DNA testing already been done to confirm there's pure amm strains.

I guess that's the sort of question I was asking. D'you know anything about said DNA testing? I imagine that if there were any large-scale DNA-based results, we'd have heard about it.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

conor t

Reesy wrote: »

I guess that's the sort of question I was asking. D'you know anything about said DNA testing? I imagine that if there were any large-scale DNA-based results, we'd have heard about it.

You'd think, wouldn't you?

Fairly sure I read somewhere about DNA tests being carried out, it might have been on galtee website, maybe email nihbs to see can they share any results