Connemara Beekeepers

12/06/2026

🐝 Did you know that 1 in 4 European veterinary schools teaches nothing about honey bee health?

And yet veterinary professionals are legally responsible for setting honey bee disease controls under World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Terrestrial Code Chapter 4.15. They are graduating without the training to do the job properly.

With Varroa, exotic pests, and viral diseases threatening colonies worldwide, the Apimondia Federation Working Group-GVPA is calling on the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) for urgent change: mandatory bee health training in veterinary schools globally.

✅ Mandate a minimum of 20 core bee health hours in veterinary curricula worldwide
✅ Develop WOAH Day One competences for honey bees, harmonised with European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education (EAEVE) and American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) standards.
✅ Require bee health training — including preventive medicine, queen bee trading, and beeswax-borne diseases.
✅ Expand postgraduate and continuing education programmes for practising veterinarians
✅ Establish global monitoring of honey bee veterinary education compliance
✅ Promote interdisciplinary One Health approaches connecting bee health, food safety, environmental health, and ecosystem resilience

Because healthy bees need expert professionals. And expert vets need proper training in insect pollinators.

Read Policy Brief #7 here 👉https://apimondia.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/07_Honeybee-Veterinary-Education-Advancement.pdf

11/06/2026

08/06/2026

A great turnout in Tullamore today for John Summerville’s Native Irish Honey Bee Society 2026 Queen Rearing and Bee Improvement Day.

It was possibly the greatest gathering of world-class beekeepers in Ireland since the well-remembered meetings at Gormanstown. Not only did we witness this remarkable coming together, but everyone benefitted greatly from the sharing of knowledge, ideas, and experience throughout the day, followed by tea and conversation afterwards.

A special thank you to all our members, new supporters, and the many interested beekeepers who travelled to attend, especially on a day when the weather was threatening to be moist, to say the least!

We are particularly grateful to the many new visitors who came to learn more about the Native Irish Black Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera. We truly appreciate you taking the chance to venture out on what was a very dull day in many parts of Ireland, though thankfully not in the fortunate microclimate of Clonminch Lane.

Thank you all for making a such a memorable and inspiring day.

20/04/2026

Well done to the for clearly stating their stance on bee imports.

For every beekeeper in the UK—hobbyist or commercial—the risk of importing exotic pests and diseases (including tropilaelaps)is genuinely frightening. Once something like that gets a foothold, it’s not “someone else’s problem” — it’s all of ours.

The uncomfortable truth is this: we don’t currently breed enough UK bees in the UK to meet demand, so imports keep filling the gap.

But here’s the good news: we can change that.

We already have:
- the skills (across bee farmers, hobbyists and association apiaries)
- the local knowledge
- and the bee stock here in the UK

What we need now is momentum and coordination—especially at local level.

A challenge (and an invitation) to every local association
If your association doesn’t have a breeding programme yet, push for one. Ask the question at meetings. Volunteer to help. Encourage your association apiary to make it a priority. Even small, consistent steps—queen rearing, selection, drone flooding, record-keeping—add up quickly when lots of groups do them together.

Because imports won’t stop until demand stops.

We’re continuing our own breeding programme, and we’re going to share more of the journey than ever before—what’s working, what isn’t, and what we’re learning along the way.

We’re proud to stand with BBKA and BIBBA in supporting UK-bred bees and reducing reliance on imports.

If you’re already involved in local breeding efforts, tell us what your association is doing. If you’re not—this is your nudge to start the conversation.

23/03/2026

THE board of Inishturk Community Development Company has approved a proposal by Dr. Sean O’Connor, founder of Wild Atlantic Honey & Mead, to establish a native Irish honey bee sanctuary on Inishturk island, with the project set to begin next month.