We're extracting the first of this year's honey, and just in time as we're nearly out of last year's wildflower honey.
After the last two awful summers we're being careful to make sure all our colonies have plenty of honey left for themselves in case we get more continued poor weather this summer.

We'll be joining lots of other artists, crafters and producers tomorrow at the first Ardara Artisan Market of the year, and we'll have our local Wildflower Honey and little bars of our own pure beeswax. Hope to see some of you there.

#honey #donegal #buylocal #ardara #ardaraartisanmarket

Our first blue queen has been marked, even though the paint job could have been a bit better!
This was an early supercedure in a weak overwintered nuc. The bees would have known that their old queen wasn't going to be able to lay enough brood so they replaced her with her daughter.
#beekeeping

Swarm season has begun.
This is the first swarm cell we came across this year on the last day of April.
It was captivating watching the bees queue up to deposit tiny amounts of royal jelly when added together made a large white pool around the larva which has been selected to become a queen. #bees

This is taken from a wonderful website www.pollinators.ie, full of information for those interested in nature and native pollinators, with a dedicated section to 'No Mow May', and a Resource page packed with resources, guidelines, planting lists, flyers, signage & posters free to download and use.

While transferring a nuc (a baby colony) into a full-sized hive today we came across this lovely patch of newly-laid eggs. The eggs look like tiny grains of rice adhered to the floor of the cell and stand upright.

#beekeeping #nativeirishhoneybee

It was lovely to have all four of us out inspecting the bees on such a lovely day here in Donegal this weekend, and the bees were so calm and gentle to work with. Maybe they can sense the good week ahead and it's put them in a good mood.
#nativeirishbees #beekeepers #beekeeping #buylocal #donegal

As beekeepers we're always looking out to see what our honeybees are working on, and encouraging and promoting plants that are valuable to not just honeybees but all native pollinators. It was lovely to watch this bee on one of the many dandelions along the roadsides in the recent glorious weather.

We're after having a fantastic spell of warm, dry weather, and it's given the bees a great start to the year.
Supers on our strongest colonies are filling with spring honey.
All fingers are crossed for better weather this year than we've had in the last two. 🤞

#Beekeeping

My book is out in the world since Oct '24 & available in all bookshops & online:
obrien.ie/the-keeper-o...

Published by the O'Brien Press & Illustrated by Jane Carkill 🐝🐝

#Folklore
#Bees
#Beekeeping

After Storm Darragh's red wind warning on Friday night, we went around our apiaries to check on the hives.
Just had one of our nucs which was quite tall blown over.
The bees are all alive and well though. The walls acted like a roof and kept them dry till we got to them.

#beekeeping #stormdarragh

It was lovely to see the bees out and about today on the last day of November after all the cold wintery weather we've had lately. It was a bit blustery today but quite dry and mild, so they got out to do cleansing flights and visit the mahonia and whin bushes.

#beekeeping #donegal #honeybees

The last of our Heather Honey jarred and ready for the chest freezer where it will stay until it's needed for our local customers. Like our Wildflower Honey the yield is well down from last year. It's not going to last until next year's harvest comes in. 😕

#beekeeping #beekeeper #localhoney