Tipperary village plans a conservation area to help protect the honey bee

On Friday, November 4, a meeting in Cappawhite Community Resource Centre, was attended by beekeepers from across west Tipperary and beyond.

The meeting convenor was established beekeeper and Cappawhite native, Paul Grisewood.

The purpose of the meeting was to establish west Tipperary as a conservation area for the native honey bee.

There is major concern from all established beekeepers on the threat to the native honey bee from non-native varieties which are being brought into the country.

Paul Grisewood in his talk outlined how some “beekeepers are bringing in the non-native bee. We know what happens when they cross into the first generation or the second generation, the bee becomes a mongrel bee, it becomes a cross bee. Our native bee has evolved over thousands of years and it is very compact. It is efficient for the winter time, the mongrel bee is not. The mongrel bee is crosser and is beginning to cause a lot of problems during swarming time where people ring us up to ask us to take a swarm as they are afraid and have been stung”.

“Bees are in trouble both from the non-native and from fraud. Honey is the third biggest food fraud in the world. They are testing the honey that you see in supermarkets and finding that they are syrup. Six out of seven of the manuka honey jars tested in England this year are fraudulent. So, there is a big fight as regards honey fraud, not to mention the importation of the non-native bee,” he said.

“We are trying to declare this area a conservation area for the native honey bee. We know we have a big fight to stop the non-native bees coming in,” said Paul.

Professor John Breen, UL, spoke about the history of the honey bee and said that we have between 98 and 102 species of wild bees in the country and we have just one honey bee. On a world basis there are about 11 species of honey bees and all of them, bar one, are native to Asia. Bees almost certainly got to Ireland on their own.

“Through the centuries bees were extremely important, probably for two things, one is for wax. Secondly, before sugar cane it was the only real sweetener. One can only therefore see the importance of conservation of the native honey bee.

“I am happy to say that there are a few localities and I am aware of four or five wild colonies in the Lough Gur area. If you know of bees in trees or minding themselves in roofs of houses, they are to be welcomed,” concluded Professor Breen.

MORE EMPHASIS NEEDED FOR HONEY

Senator Garret Ahearn was also in attendance and said that if we put the same emphasis internationally on our honey and bees as we do with milk and beef and grain that we would go an awful long way.

“In terms of the legislation that is being brought through the Dáil at the moment if we have that kind of emphasis on it when we speak about it, that we can promote the native honey bee and promote the honey that we produce in this country as internationally-renowned honey across the world, I think that starts the conversation inside both chambers of the Houses of the Oireachtas on why we need to make changes.

“One of my colleagues in the Seanad, Senator Vincent P. Martin is extremely passionate about this and is a beekeeper himself. He has brought through a piece of legislation, Protection of the Native Irish Honey Bee Bill 2021, which was supported by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, and by most parties in the Seanad. If ever there was a right time in my view politically to try and push this as hard as we can then this is it.

“Essentially what Senator Martin is trying to do is put legislation through with the support of the Seanad to protect the native honey bee and create a situation where the island of Ireland (with co-operation from Northern Ireland) is a conservation area for the native honey bee and that is what we are working on.

“It is now at committee stage, where amendments come in and where we look at how we work with our Northern partners on the legislation, how we put the case at EU level on protecting a species which is in danger and why it needs to be protected. If it gets passed at committee it goes back to the report and final stage and then to the Dáil and eventually to the President for the signing of the Bill.

“I think this is a sector that we should be really proud of and I think that when you do something like creating a situation where west Tipperary will be a native bee conservation area, sends that message that what you want to do here should be replicated across the island of Ireland,” said Senator Ahearn.