Collective bargaining may no longer be de rigueur in our current economic climate but this has not prevented Irish bees from acquiring a representative organisation of their own.
The recently established Native Irish Honey Bee Society (NIHBS) is an all-Ireland body dedicated to conserving remaining stocks of the endangered Irish ‘black bee’.
“The feral bee population has all but gone in many parts of Ireland,” laments Pat Deasy, the society’s Waterford-based Chairman. “Varroa is the cause of spreading many bee viruses and weakening the bee population; however, with help our native bees will in time learn to co-exist with it.
