Those of us who are beekeepers are having a difficult year in relation to honey production.

Weather patterns, so far, have left nectar yields uncollected. The on-off of cold, rain, overcast and sunshine has left honeybee colonies without a backup honey supply in their brood area. The knock-on of this is that no surplus honey is stored in the supers.

Brood production has suffered too, since bees need a constant supply of nectar and pollen to maintain population size. Any stoppage or shortage in these two vital food items results in the queen shutting down or slowing down egg laying.

This scenario militates against collecting nectar and pollen during short breaks in the weather, since large numbers of bees are needed to maximise nectar collection.

Producing queens has been difficult. This process is very much time and weather dependant. Some queens have been produced and have got mated but the numbers have been greatly reduced.

Mated queens were slow to start laying, taking six weeks in most cases. Beekeepers may stomach the lack of new queens in the short term but it could have repercussions in the coming year.

Beekeeping relies on a steady supply of new queens for good honey and nuclei production. A shortage of queens may lead to imports of non-native queens.

Hopefully, no beekeeper will be tempted to go down that road. Such short-term gain will have long-term consequences for the pure status of the dark native Irish honeybee.

Flowering period

The flowering period of many of our main nectar producing plants is getting earlier and earlier.

The briar (blackberry) came into bloom in early June and earlier in some parts of the country as did Rosebay willowherb. Beekeepers may be taken by surprise by these early flows so we may learn to accommodate these changes.

It looks as if we will need to start thinking differently in how we manage our bees given these uncertainties in climate change.

The briar blooms are something to look at rather than getting a crop of honey.

Perhaps my eyes are deceiving me, but these blooms seem more intense this year, so at least we can enjoy their beauty. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me, knowing that they should be covered in bees gorging themselves on a profuse flow of nectar.

There appears to be an abundant supply of wild flowers this year, many of which are worked by the honey bee. One plant, the white clover, had very few bees visiting it since the temperature for nectar yield was sparse.

Looking back, the year 2008 was a poor year for honey production but 2024 may very well make history. We still have the ling heather which is coming into bloom. We need warm sultry weather for this.

It is flowering much earlier than years back. Hope springs eternal.