Native Irish Black Bee

The Irish Black Bee was almost threatened with extinction back in the eighties due to years of importations throughout the last century. It remained only in a few pockets around the country. This bee is a strain of the European Dark Honeybee (Apis Mellifera Mellifera). 

It is the indigenous bee of Ireland and therefore perfectly adapted to the climates of the region. Through genetics it has been proven, Ireland has some of the purest strains of European Dark Bee in the world. It is very important to conserve this species of bee through a policy of non-importation of foreign bees which is adopted by FIBKA.  

Because it is adapted to the climates of Northern Europe, it is very frugal with its stores. During a cold wet period, it does not use up a whole lot of the honey it has collected. Whereas it has been proven that Italian and Buckfast bees use up huge amounts of honey in bad weather and need heavier sugar feeding in winter because of their large colonies.

Check this link for a great Video clip on the life cycle of the honey bee:

The secret life of the honeybee

Queen Bee

A honeybee colony is a super organism of social insects working together for the benefit of all. Honey bees show just how efficient working together can be. Three sorts of bee are found in a colony: the queen, the workers and the drones. The queen is the mother of the hive. There is only one queen and each day she has to lay the 1000 or so eggs that will develop into new honeybees. Her strong pheromones (body smells) keep the colony working together and prevent the worker bees from trying to lay eggs.

Drone Bee

The drones are lazy boys. Their only work is to mate with a queen – and only the fittest few will get this pleasure. Otherwise they sit around the hive being looked after by the workers or hang round on the bee equivalent of street corners waiting for a young queen to come by. All summer they luxuriate. But when the weather gets cold the workers drive these passengers outside to die. And yes, it’s true that when a drone mates with the queen he dies in the act – but he dies happy!!!

Worker Bees

It is the thousands of worker bees who keep the colony going. From the day they are born they slave away without complaining; cleaning and guarding the hive, feeding the developing bee brood (babies), building the honeycomb, and collecting nectar to process into honey stores for the long winter when there are no flowers. The workers keep the hive cool in summer and warm in winter. And they communicate very efficiently too – they can tell their sisters where to find the best flowers, and the amount and quality of the nectar they will find there. They can tell if the queen is safe and if that new bee trying to creep in is a stranger from another hive coming to steal their precious honey.

Propolis – Very Sticky Stuff

A bee brings back propolis on her hind legs
Photo: Claire Waring

As well as collecting nectar, pollen and water from the environment, honeybees also collect propolis
The resinous substance collected by bees from some plants is called propolis or bee glue and is an essential part of bee life.

Propolis is the collected exudates of a variety of plants, particularly trees. These aromatic substances are a combination of resins and balsams with essential and aromatic oils

Organic Compounds

The resins give propolis flexibility and the ability to soften when heated while the balsams are aromatic. The sweet smelling essential and aromatic oils contain a variety of complex compounds including terpenes and flavonoids. Many of the substances in propolis have disinfectant properties and also act against bacteria, fungi and even viruses, so it is extremely valuable to the bee colony.

How Do Bees Collect Propolis ?

In the warm, lazy days of late summer, bees carry propolis back to the hive in the pollen baskets on their back legs. It is often possible to see a bee with these glistening, sticky drops of propolis. Collecting the propolis is quite difficult and bees occupied with this job have no time to do anything else. Once back in the hive, the collector bee is unable to dislodge the loads so they have to be bitten off by other bees. It is never stored but used immediately to keep the hive free of germs, to strengthen the honeycomb and block up any draughty cracks in the hive.

Human Uses

Humans have also found uses for propolis, particularly in medicine. In ancient times it was used for dressing wounds and this is being investigated again today. An enormous number of claims have been made for it including activity against tumours and respiratory infections. It is also claimed to reduce hair loss but I leave that to the imagination. We do know that it sometimes induces allergies, usually resulting in a type of dermatitis and beekeepers sometimes become allergic to propolis after many years of trouble free beekeeping. In ancient times it was used in embalming and it has been a constituent of varnishes.

(Source: Beecraft)