The Native Irish Honey Bee Society Conference 2019

Protecting our Native Honey Bee Heritage

Professor Francis Ratnieks has had a life-long interest in science and insects and still chases

butterflies and moths! He spent 8 years here in Ireland, making jewellery and working on fishing

boats in Kerry before doing a BSC in Ecology at the University of Ulster.

From Ulster, via Panama to Cornell University for MS and PhD degrees in honey bee biology,

research into "killer bees" in Mexico, work for the New York State Apiary Inspection Program

researching and lecturing on honey bee diseases. After postdoctoral research on honey bees and

social insects at University of California, Berkeley and Riverside, he taught at Aarhus University in

Denmark. In the USA he kept up to 180 bee hives making honey, comb honey, queen rearing and

pollinating almonds.

In 1995 at Sheffield University he set up the Laboratory of Apiculture (LASI) and became the UK’s

first (and still Only) Professor of Apiculture before moving back to Sussex in 2008 where he remains

head of LASI.

Author of over 270 research articles on

honey bees and social insects, including c.

10 in Nature & Science magazines, he

trained approximately 20 PhD students

and 20 postdoctoral researchers. He has

written 100 outreach articles for

beekeepers and others, always ensuring

that both he and LASI are involved in

public communication of science to the

general public as well as beekeepers.

Francis says that he has “found that the most useful things he learned at school were woodwork (for

making bee hives) and algebra (for modeling social evolution). He has also found that the most useful

scientific instruments are eyes and an enquiring mind, and the most important thing in a laboratory

are the people. He looks forward to being in Ireland again and meeting the Native Irish Honey Bee

“Society.

Katherine Burns, UCD, Poster Presentation - 'Public Understanding of Pollinating Insects in Ireland’"Katherine Burns, a PhD student at University College Dublin,

recently conducted country-wide citizen survey, “What's the

Buzz? Public Views of Pollinating Insects in Ireland,” to

determine the perceptions and understanding around

identification, importance, decline and conservation of Irish

pollinators.

Recent studies have shown that Ireland’s pollinator populations

are in decline, threatening the stability of pollination services. Public knowledge of pollinators and

pollination services is essential for inspiring public and political interest in engaging with

conservation initiatives.

Therefore, in order to effectively engage Irish communities in pollinator conservation, it is important

to first identify gaps in the current public understanding of pollinators in Ireland. The preliminary

findings of the survey indicate that, due to certain misconceptions concerning the importance of

certain pollinator groups and actions to protect them, more educational and engagement measures

may be required to effectively promote and protect Ireland’s pollinators.

Laura Curtin, LIT, Poster Presentation - ‘Characterization of Irish honey utilizing Chromatography and Melissopalynology’

Honey “laundering” is rampant in the honey market, where, the

origin of honeys can easily be disguised by removing the

pollen through filtration of the honey and restructuring the

accompanying documentation.

Melissopalynology is the study of pollen in honey. It is the

traditional method of determining honeys’ geographical and

botanical origin Melissopalynology, however, is quite laborious

and copious amount of skill and knowledge is required when

adapting this technique.

This study initially analyses the pollen in 11 Irish and 1 New Zealand honey. An alternative method

of geographical and botanical origin determination is then developed and validated using High

Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This rapid robust precise and accurate method was

then applied to the Irish and New Zealand honeys with the aim of substituting for or complementing

melissopalynology. Some antibacterial studies of these honeys is also examined.

Grace McCormack is a Professor in Zoology at NUI

Galway.

Her interests lie in evolutionary biology and particularly in

using molecular data to understand how organisms are related

to each other and the impacts this may have on conservation

and on the evolution of organismal traits. The interaction

between animals and their parasites/pathogens over

evolutionary time is also of interest as is the use of this information in applied science such as

biodiscovery (marine sponges) and apiculture (bees).

Grace has published over 60 research papers and book chapters and currently has a team of six PhD

students and a research assistant thanks to funding by the EU, the Irish Research Council, Department

of Agriculture Food and the Marine, and NUIG.

Recent honeybee research by her team and collaborators (including LIT, NIHBS and FIBKA) indicate

a healthy pure A. m. mellifera population in Ireland including many apparently successful free-living

colonies.

Molecular Ecology of Native Irish Honeybees.

“This year the McCormack lab has continued to explore native Irish honeybees using  DNA methods.

In this talk I will update NIHBS membership with recent results on free-living colonies, introduce a

citizen science online database for recording and monitoring free-living colonies and discuss the

relationship between colour and purity.

In 2016/7 eight NIHBS members allowed us to collect pollen and bees every three weeks. Using state

of the art sequencing approaches we investigated the diversity of pollen used by native bees and the

gut bacteria from those bees from the perspective of bee health .

In this talk we will also provide a summary of the results of that work.”

Jack Hassett, LIT. Jack received his BSc. (Hons) in Pharmaceutical and Forensic Analysis from

Limerick Institute of Technology in 2013. During his degree

he studied a wide variety of scientific practices and has

experience with an array of various instrumentation. Prior to

completion of his degree, Jack conducted a study into the

“Factors affecting the Transfer of DNA” under criminal

circumstances. 

Jack is currently completing his Ph.D. in the “Genetic

Analysis of the Irish Honeybee” under the supervision of

Dr Mike Geary and Dr Liz Moore. The aim of which is to

determine the population and level of hybridisation of the

Irish Honeybee in Ireland. Through his research, Jack has expertise in a diverse range of DNA

extraction, amplification and visualisation techniques.

Talk Summary:  The natural range of the dark European honeybee, Apis mellifera mellifera has been

significantly reduced in recent years as a result of human interaction. Previous studies have indicated

that a substantial amount of A. m. mellifera populations throughout Europe are heavily hybridized but

that pockets of pure populations do still exist and need to be protected as this subspecies is a highly

valuable gene pool and is of considerable conservational interest. Small numbers of Irish bees have

been included in previous studies, but scientific information is limited and questions remain about the

genetic diversity of bees in Ireland and the extent of introgression into apparent black bees from

introduced races and hybrids. The objective of this study is to investigate the genetic composition of

the A. m. mellifera population on the island of Ireland with modern molecular techniques including

both microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA analysis.

Dr. John Breen, Associate Professor in Biology, University of Limerick

Current Research Interests

Biodiversity and ecology of Irish insects, especially ants and

bumblebees; beekeeping research with the National Apiculture

Programme.

John’s talk will introduce the major honey bee species in the

world, including the Giant Honey Bee Apis dorsata, the Eastern

Honey Bee, Apis cerana, the Dwarf Honey Bee, Apis florea, and

finally some subspecies of the Western Honey Bee other than Apis

mellifera mellifera.

.

Keith Pierce, Master Beekeeper

Keith has been beekeeping for more than 25 years, selectively

rearing Dark Native Irish Queens Apis mellifera mellifera. He

says “My selection program is based on the ability of my bees

to over-winter strongly, together with disease resistance,

docility, productivity, colour and more.

My home and main mating apiary is just on the outskirts of

Dublin city, with the bees foraging over the extensive area of

the Phoenix Park and the Liffey Valley, including the gardens of suburban Castleknock.

My queens are naturally open mated, but I have been flooding the vicinity of my apiary with drones

from my own native dark bees. Each year I over winter more colonies of bees than I need, keeping

only the best and requeening those that do not come up to my criteria.”

For this talk, Keith will explain how he is still able to selectively rear quality Queens of our dark

native bee, despite having neighbours who are not all using native bees

Dr. Una Fitzpatrick, Senior Ecologist at the National Biodiversity Data Centre,

Author and self-declared ‘eternal optimist’, Una is also co-

founder and Project Coordinator of the All Ireland Pollinator

Plan and will update us on what is happening now and what is

hopeful for the future.

In Una’s own words and referring to all bees and not just

honey bees “Bees have been around since the time of the

dinosaurs. Let’s not be the generation that squanders this

vital resource. Let’s take advantage of the public support to

change things. Let’s get behind the current Pollinator Plan

and let’s work to develop an even more ambitious one in

2021.

Let’s not accept that ‘it’s too late’, and instead, work to ensure we leave our grandchildren a better

environment than we’ve given to our children.”

Marleen Boerjan, president of SICAMM - Societas Internationalis pro Conservatione Apis melliferae melliferae (the International Association for the protection of the European Dark Bee).

Marleen Boerjan has a background in molecular sciences

(Wageningen University, The Netherlands) and is a

specialist in developmental biology. She worked at the

University, scientific Institutes and in industry.

She is a beekeeper for decades and had several tasks in the

Dutch Beekeeping Association like editor of their

beekeeping journal.

She is still president of the foundation “De Duurzame Bij

“(Sustainable Bee) whose activities are directed to selection

of varroa-tolerant colonies of Apis mellifera mellifera.

Background to SICAMM. In September 1995 beekeepers and scientists interested in the

preservation of Apis mellifera mellifera (European dark bee) met in Flekkefjord, Norway. It was the

first meeting in a row of 13 conferences organized every two years by local European scientists and

beekeeping organizations who valued the characteristics of the dark bee.

The main objective of SICAMM was and still is to stimulate exchange of scientific as well as more

applied knowledge of Apis m m .

In1995 the characterization of Apis m. m. was based mainly on morphology as colour, hair length and

the pattern of the wings but also on behavioural characters.

In 2018 several molecular approaches are becoming available to characterize Apis m m colonies.

These techniques are essential to show the acute need of genetic resources preserved in Apis m m

colonies. Especially the adaptive capability of Apis mellifera mellifera colonies to the changing

environmental condition will become more and more important.

Future of SICAMM. In July 2018, under auspices of the Finnish Beekeeping Association, the 13th

SICAMM conference was held in Mustiala Agricultural Institute in Finland. Several papers presented

showed that in most European countries, small population of the dark bee are still present, with the

biggest population in Ireland. However, it also became clear in order to preserve these local

populations more collective European effort is needed and SICAMM should take the initiative.

Consequently SICAMM need to achieve a more official, registered, status and Marleen was invited to

take the initiative to transform SICAMM to a European registered Association or Cooperative

Foundation. First results of her quest will be presented here.

John McMullan, Former Research Associate, Trinity College, Dublin and author of “Having Healthy Bees, an integrated approach”

John’s talk is on ‘Varroa tolerance in native honeybee

colonies’ and he states “There is no longer any need to

treat our native honeybees. A regime can be put in place

that allows colonies to self-adapt and with added

bonuses; reduced disease transmission and conservation

of native strain.

In North County Dublin, Ireland, a region that has a

relatively self-contained beekeeping regime with little movement of olonies or queens into the area,

tolerance (co-adaptation) to varroa mites is becoming established. This has occurred without any

mite treatment since 2010, and no breeding or colony selection.

The large increase in beginner-beekeepers in the past decade in North County Dublin has been

facilitated through a mentoring system that involves experienced beekeepers in the local association

(Fingal North Dublin BKA) mentoring and providing startup-colonies from their own stocks. This

policy decision by the association was taken to reduce transmission of disease, specifically American

Foulbrood, and also to restrict the introduction of non-native strains of Apis mellifera into the area.

Irene Power, ‘Spring Summer Management to Maximise Honey Production.’

Irene comes from a well-known and successful beekeeping family and has had many successes in honey shows in Ireland and London.

As a lecturer she is always in demand at home but has also lectured in England, Wales, Denmark and Texas.

She is a member of South Tipperary Beekeepers Association & former Secretary of the Clonmel Honey Show (Largest Honey Show in Ireland). Irene provides beginners courses, Intermediate & Senior Study Groups in county Limerick and helps with outdoor demonstrations in South Tipperary.

A very practical beekeeper, she maintains 15 - 20 colonies, with keen interests in honey bee health, queen rearing and honey production. Irene believes that planning ahead and maintaining all your production hives at full capacity is important and her talk will elaborate on how she does this.