The weather was brilliant today for the bees. Here is a 1 min video of the bees comming and going from the front door. Every now and then you will spot a larger looking bees. This is a drone. The drones are the male honeybees and will be flying to try and mate with a queen bee. This video is in real time. It's a wonderful sight to see. And a wonderful noise to hear aswell. Video was taken today at about 3 pm 20/6/17.

Such a nice day at John summerville's open day. There was a brillaint turnout with what seemed like over 50 people in attendance. We learnt all about queen rearing and selective breeding. If you ever get the opertunity I highly suggest you go along. A big thanks to Offaly Beekeeping Association for making everyone so welcome. It was well worth the trip. Next open day close by is Gervase Padden which is the 2nd of July.

Wonderful turn out at Drimbawn house open day. Terrible weather but such a crowd turned out to see the wonderful gardens. The westport beekeepers club were there in strength talking about everything from pollination to honey. It's open every year for one weekend with the proceeds going to charity. Well worth a visit next year if you have the few hours free. Even the rain couldn't hold down the mood.

Wonderful little video of Newport the area i keep most of my beehives in. nice to see the view my bees get most days. Spectacular as always from firefly.

Pity about the result on Sunday. I didn't see the match as i was up at a beekeeping open day on sunday. At Matt Morans up in ballina. I began beekeeping with help from Matt. I actually bought my very first bees from him(before i even had a beesuit). I still have the great great grand daughters from that hive. In fact I have only bought one other hive which was a nuc (starter hive) from a friend of mine. It was a pleasure to go to the open day and watch the demonstrations. Plenty to learn and always little ideas to pick up on. There are quite a few open days held by beekeepers around the country and a few in co mayo. The next one will be jarvis paddens one in a few weeks. It is quite a good way to see what is involved in the craft and to find out how to make a start at beekeeping. Usually things are demonstrated aswell like how to do an inspection, queen rearing, breeding techniques, making nuc's, hive assembly and much much more. It was a pleasure to go to a apairy which was running long before I was even born. And wonderful to listen to such Knowledgeable beekeepers talking about their craft.

One of my honeybees working on a pink Rosa Rugosa flower. Isn't it fascinating to watch her work. I think she is trying to get to the nectaries in the flower. You can see her moving aside the anthers ( male part of the flower). You can also see pollen baskets on her hind legs(how a honeybee carries pollen loads). The pollen is a grey colour. Pollen can be all sorts of colour from red to blue. Most are yellow or green tho. The bees always work Rosa rugosa quite well and seem to get plenty of forage from it in my little garden. If you capture the pollen from a bee you can find out what she has been working on. It's another fascinating aspect to beekeeping.

Nice to see Ireland representing honeybees in Europe. Fair play to Philip mc cabe ex PRO of Fibka and now world beekeeping president and of course Gerry ryan vice president of Fibka and Eamon mc gee president of Fibka. Fibka is the The Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations of which i am a member.

This is a photo I took two days ago of a varroa mite. She is on a bit of brace comb that I removed from a hive. The varroa mite is one of the biggest problems to beekeepers. The mite feeds on young larvae as they develop which weakens the bee. This isn't the main problem tho. The varroa pass viruses to the larvae. There are about 15 viruses which are known to date to be passed by varroa. It is these viruses which are so devastating to a honey bee colony. At present in Ireland most hives if not treated for varroa will die within 2-3 years. This mite was introduced by accident to the European honey bee and from there to the north European black bee. The original host the Asian honey bee has methods of dealing with varroa which allow them to coexist. Unfortunately in the European bees this is not the case. The varroa is a female mite who will enter a larvae's cell just before it is sealed. She will then lay one male egg and then several female eggs. The males and females will then mate in the cell. All the time they are feeding on the larvae. When the cell is opened to allow the bee out when it has finished pupating. The original female and some of the older daughters will leave the cell. The male and the younger daughters will die as they can't survive outside the cell. It is very hard to kill a bug on a bug. This has ment that unfortunately most beekeepers have had to resort to using chemicals to kill the mites. Most chemicals used also damage the honey bee to some level as well. I am no different in this respect and have to treat my hives or lose them... The picture is quite magnified. But in comparison if a bee was the size of a cow the mite is the size of a cat. Not exactly small in comparison.

Today I got the opertunatie to run another swarm in. Running a swarm in is where you make the bees March into their new hive. Bees want to climb up so if you put a slope leading up to the hive they will climb it and then enter the hive when they get to the top. This allows you to see what's in the swarm so if you wanted to you can use this to catch the queen. It's also a beautiful piece of nature to watch happening.

This is this year's colour for my system. I paint all of my equipment the year I buy or make it. I paint each years equipment a different colour. Last year was pink and I used the last of the pink paint I had last week. So I now get a chance to get new paint and as such a new colour for 2016 equipment. This allows me at a glance to see how old every piece of equipment is. The nice bonus to this is that my beehives tend to be very colourful. So this year is bright orange. Any suggestions for 2017? I really like nice bright colours and so far I have had. Yellow, white, green, red, pink, and now of course orange. There are a few bits and pieces which are brown and these are from my first few years beekeeping. So what colour next?

I had a visit the last day from a mate of mine who runs firefly photography. https://www.facebook.com/FireflyAerialPhotography he sent me this cool photo looking down on my home apiary. such a wonderful thing to be given. if you look closely you can see where i am standing getting ready to look at the bees and also a sheet spread in-front of one of the hives. the sheet is used to run a swarm into a hive. the way i do a run up is by putting the hive slightly elevated and have the sheet as the slope the bees have to climb up to get into the hive. bees while in a swarm want to climb up and will also seek to go into the dark so when a swarm is shook onto the sheet they will start to climb and when the reach the hive they will enter it. the whole process takes from 10 mins to a few hours. it allows me a very good chance to catch the queen within the swarm and mark her. i never clip a queen in a swarm as you cant know if she is a virgin or not. i knew the history of this swarm so felt safe to install it in my home apiary. if i was unsure i would install it in one of my isolated apiarys so i can check that it has no disease. running a swarm up is time consuming but very enjoyable. anyway i now have a lovely photo to treasure and ill get it printed out and framed and pop it in my honey house(extracting room).

A quick video of how I make honey supers. I'm using a paslode staple gun which I picked up at the Sunday market in Castlebar. Probelry one of the best buys I've had from there. The box is made completely from 6×1 lumber. There are 3 parts. The long sides which are 6×1 the narrow sides which are 16mm shorter just ripped on the table saw ( that I managed to get from eBay just before xmas). The narrow side parts are a 6×1 ripped into 4 pieces with a corner cut out of them to allow the frame to rest on it. If anyone is interested I can show how I am cutting everything so you will be able to make your own on the cheap. No joints, no clue and will Probelry last 5 years or a little over. Certainly not cabinet making but there are boxes where there was only wood before.