Welcome to this month's update from All About Nectar. Each month we'll share what's happening in our apiaries, the changing seasons for our bees, and a look behind the scenes at life on our family farm.
A Promising Start to the Honey Season
The past month has been incredibly busy in our apiaries.
After a kind spring, our colonies built up well and we were delighted to harvest our spring honey. We also moved several colonies from oilseed rape onto nearby field bean crops.
Field beans are a hugely important crop for honey bees. They flower at a time when many people assume there's plenty of nectar available simply because everything is green and growing. In reality, there can be very little nectar for bees to forage. Strong colonies can contain up to 60,000 bees, and they consume large amounts of food every day. Without good nectar sources at this time of year, colonies can quickly come under pressure.
Thankfully, the weather has played its part. Regular rain has kept moisture in the ground, followed by warm sunshine over the past few weeks. So far, conditions are looking very promising for a good summer honey crop—a welcome change after three very challenging seasons.
Now we leave the rest to the bees!
Swarm Season
June is always swarm season, and we've received plenty of calls from members of the public asking for help.
Although we don't usually collect swarms ourselves because of our strict disease control policy, we're always happy to put people in touch with local beekeepers who enjoy collecting them and giving them a new home.
This month's photograph shows a beautiful swarm that settled in a neighbour's garden before being safely collected.
Protecting Ireland's Native Honey Bee
We've also been busy queen breeding, something we specialise in here at All About Nectar.
We carefully breed from our best Irish Native Honey Bee queens, selecting colonies for their temperament, productivity and suitability to our climate. It's work we're incredibly passionate about.
The Irish Native Honey Bee has been part of this island for over 8,000 years and is uniquely adapted to our weather and environment. Across Ireland, many dedicated beekeepers are working hard to conserve these genetics.
For that reason, it's disappointing to see imported foreign queens continuing to enter the country. When these bees interbreed with our native population, thousands of years of locally adapted genetics can gradually be lost. At present there are very few legal protections to prevent this.
We remain optimistic that greater awareness, education and collaboration within the beekeeping community will help protect this important part of Ireland's natural heritage for future generations.
Every Box is Full
One of the most satisfying sights this month has been looking around our honey house and finding it almost empty.
Normally an empty shed would be a worry—but for a beekeeper it's fantastic news! It means virtually every brood box and honey super is out in the apiaries where it belongs.
After three difficult years, when many boxes never even left the shed, it's wonderful to see our colonies at full strength once again.
Now we just need the bees to fill them with honey.
Our New Website is Live
Behind the scenes we've also launched our brand new website.
Working with our marketing partners, we've moved onto Shopify, giving us a much more flexible platform that will help us improve the experience for our customers and continue growing the business.
It's still early days, but we're really excited about what's possible and we're incredibly grateful to everyone who supports our family business.
Every order allows us to continue doing what we love.
Believe It or Not... We're Already Planning Christmas!
It may only be summer, but Christmas preparations are already well underway.
This year we're creating an exciting new hamper range, developing new packaging, introducing new products and working on some wonderful collaborations with fellow artisan producers.
Supporting other small Irish producers is something we genuinely enjoy, and we can't wait to share these new partnerships over the coming months.
Bloom and Summer Markets
We had the pleasure of exhibiting at Bloom for the very first time this year and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
The highlight was launching our new handmade soap, created in collaboration with Mamo. The response has been overwhelming, and we'd like to thank everyone who stopped by our stand to chat and support us.
Over the summer we'll be attending markets and events across the country, so if you see us, please come over and say hello. Meeting customers face-to-face is still one of the most enjoyable parts of what we do.
Bringing Businesses into the Apiary
We've also welcomed several corporate groups to our apiaries over the past month.
Visitors learn about Ireland's different honey bee populations, how colonies function, the remarkable jobs carried out by worker bees, drones and queens, and the seasonal lifecycle of a hive.
The highlight for most people is putting on a bee suit and opening a hive for the very first time. Watching thousands of bees calmly going about their work from just a few feet away is an experience that changes how many people think about bees forever.
We finish every tour with a guided tasting of our own Killiane Castle Honey alongside a few carefully chosen honeys from around the world, allowing visitors to discover just how much flavour, colour and character honey can have depending on where the bees forage.
Until Next Month...
As the main summer honey flow continues, we're making the most of every good day. Before long the supers will come off, the honey house will be busy again and preparations for winter will begin.
The beekeeping season never really stands still.
Every visit to our apiaries still fills us with the same sense of wonder. We never tire of watching our bees at work, and we feel incredibly fortunate to spend our days caring for these remarkable creatures.
Thank you for joining us for our very first blog. We hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into life at All About Nectar, and we look forward to sharing another update with you next month.
