IRISH BEE

Whether you are a seasoned commercial beekeeper, or just beginning and discovering the thrill of backyard or urban beekeeping, Irish Bee queen bees are perfect for you! Irish Bees’ mated queen bees will take you through the season with improved vitality, excellent honey production, and maximum disease resistance.​

Irish Bee is reliable producer of queen honeybees. We serve commercial, small-scale, and backyard beekeepers throughout Ireland and Northern Ireland. Our mission is to provide our customers the very best queen bees to make their beekeeping endeavors a successful and enjoyable experience.

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Black Native Irish Bee

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The main focus of Irish Bee is on Apis mellifera mellifera which is the black native honey bee. For many years there was a misconception among some beekeepers that this type of bee was extinct. The main benefits and features of Black native Irish bees production can be as following:

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• Naturally adapted to the Irish climate

• Can be very docile with low swarming tendencies

• They are ideal for Irish honey production

• Excellent at sparing their stores during bad weather

• Can fly at lower temperatures

• Good honey producers, even in poor weather conditions

• Genetically diverse populations in Ireland

 

Buckfast

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The Buckfast bee is a strain of honey bee. It is a man-made bee race, a cross of many strains of bees, developed by "Brother Adam", (born Karl Kehrle on 3 August 1898 in Germany), who was in charge of beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey, where the bees are still bred today. Most of the breeding work in Europe is done by breeders belonging to the breeders association Gemeinschaft der Europäischen Buckfastimker. This organisation is maintaining a pedigree for Buckfast bees, originating from Brother Adam's years.


Characteristics
 

• maximum honey production

• Resistance to disease

• Hardiness and ability to overwinter

• Spring development

• Instinct of self provisioning

• Arrangement of honey stores

• Wax production and comb building

• Disinclination to propolize

• No brace combs

• Honey capping

• Sense of orientation

• Prolific queens (lay many eggs)

• Frugal - low amount of brood during fall (uses less honey stores during winter)

• Brood-rearing ceases during late fall

• Extremely gentle, with low sting instinct

• Low swarm instinct

• High tracheal mite tolerance

• Low incidence of chalkbrood and wax moths due to good housecleaning techniques

• Very hygienic

 

Mated queens are available from May till September weather depending.