Beekeeping on Islay: Fiona MacGillivray’s Guest Blog.

Introduction.

One of the great things about teaching beekeeping around Scotland is that I meet lots of interesting people. Some come from as far afield as Ireland (ROI) and England to attend The Healthy “BEES” (Bee Education in Scotland) Project weekend courses. https://www.moraybeekeepers.co.uk. I’ve met: pest control operatives; police officers; detectives; naval IT experts; teachers; doctors; dentists; nurses; scientists; soldiers; radiographers, HR managers; librarians and many more other inspirational beekeepers seeking knowledge. A couple of years ago, I met ecologist Fiona MacGillivray who had just started out on an adventurous and ambitious project on a small island. I’ve been following her progress with great interest and I’m very grateful to her for sharing her experiences in this blog. So, over to Fiona.

Beginner beekeeping on Islay.

Islay is an island off the west coast of Scotland and the most southern of the Inner Hebrides. It is internationally known for its fantastic whisky and has a population of about 3,200 people.  It has a very varied range of habitats from mountain to dune and coast with agriculture the mainstay of the economy. Cattle and sheep are farmed. The only crops grown are those to feed stock, and increasingly barley for the home-grown whisky production.  The climate is not the most productive for bees due to our wet, windy and long, but not cold, winters. We are on the same level as Glasgow. Autumn can start mid- August and springs often don’t get going till well into April so therefore do not lend for high honey harvests.

The Pollinator Initiative was a project spawned by the Islay Development Initiative, https://www.islaydevelopment.com, with the aim to bring jobs, a sustainable income through products, and new skills to a wider selection of Islay residents through honeybees, and to promote the wider conservation benefits that all pollinators provide in our environment.

I am an ecologist by trade and I’ve lived on Islay for over 20 years. Initially, I came here as a young enthusiastic 24-year-old to volunteer at the RSPB reserve at Gruinart, for a five-week block. I then returned as a long-term volunteer and part-time goose counter for SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage) the following winter (I’m now a 25- winter goose counter veteran!).  My employment journey took me through various roles across Islay, Jura and Colonsay with various interesting ecological discoveries into the island’s natural ecology and links between habitats and species.  Lapwing population dynamics, plant surveys in all genera of habitat, birds of prey, bird populations of all types, assessing potential wind farm sites and latterly studying dung beetles. I’ve spent time peering through cow pats for food for the enigmatic Chough, Pyrrhocorax pyrrocorax. Its last Scottish stronghold is now on Islay and Colonsay.  I have had to be adaptable and a quick learner on how species behave and interact with their environment.

I was drawn into the Pollinator project initially through a side project as chairperson of the Islay Natural History Trust and my research credentials. I developed a study of Islay’s roadside verges for floral benefit and pollinator abundance which is developing into a wider management initiative to aid improvement and enhance verge biodiversity.

The manager of Islay Development Initiative is a dab hand at securing funding for projects, and through the European Social Fund and the Scottish Government secured funding for four full time and a part-time position with honeybees as the focus.  I joined the Pollinator project officially as its project co-ordinator in April 2018 bringing a wealth of skills to the position.

My Great Aunt kept bees and I remember watching them as a toddler. I was determined that beekeeping, with the help of the beekeeping apprentices, would be something I would aim to master.  I could see the beneficial impact that honeybees could potentially have on the environment which was also frequently emphasised by our mentor, a beekeeper of some 40 years.  Honey bees are insects that would actively pollinate at anytime in the season and saturate the pollination of flowers in their vicinity.

We benefited from a couple of training trips to Colonsay, learning about beekeeping and the black bees from Andrew Abrahams who supplied us with our first four nucleus colonies.  https://colonsay.org.uk/things-do/beekeeping-courses

Our mentor on Islay initially trained us at his apiary site, showing us how to work inspections and handle frames. His bees were usually very gentle and provided little fuss, enabling us to concentrate of understanding what was happening with them and all the key elements to search and look for.  I found it fascinating, even if it took me a little time for the penny to drop on certain aspects of how they functioned.  I read Ted Hooper’s book and Beekeeping for Dummies to reinforce what we were seeing and what may be to come.  In that first year we made artificial swarms/splits from the nuc colonies, observed queen rearing in mating boxes at our mentor’s apiary, and were immersed in all aspects of beekeeping. 

I guess many people learning beekeeping do so at a slow pace over many years, coming across issues and problems periodically and learning as they need to deal with them.  We had it full on 2-3 days per week with multiple colonies and saw everything, with a knowledgeable beekeeper to explain.  We backed this up through scanning the internet with our questions and reading books.  We applied to take the basic beekeeping certificate of the SBA (Scottish Beekeepers Association) and put in a lot of time to studying the range of topics required.  We had a problem colony which was not doing well, and through this study we recognised many of the symptoms of EFB (European foulbrood) obviously a big concern, we did our duty and reported it, sending a sample to SASA (Scientific Advice for Scottish Agriculture).  At this same time, we were visited by Enid Brown and Margaret Thomas who were testing us for the basic beekeeper certificate and they gave their opinion on our problem colony.  Just in case we burned the suspect brood and put the colony on new foundation, it was thankfully negative for EFB, and put down to a situation of chilled brood, perhaps providing them too much space too soon.  A valuable learning experience none the less, teaching acute observational skills.

Over the winter of 2018/19 we studied for our first module exams and developed other aspects of the project such as planning for school visits and all that the following season might bring.  I undertook queen rearing as this was a major aim for the 2019 season to master such abilities with the aspiration for expansion of colonies for the development of product. 

A great trip to the mainland to undertake the honeybee pests and diseases course with Ann and Tony in March 2019 was a great opportunity to meet lots of other beekeepers. (The Healthy “BEES” (Bee Education in Scotland) Project https://www.moraybeekeepers.co.uk.) Everyone was interested to hear how Islay is free of the Varroa mite and to see our bees and the Braula, Braula coeca, on them. 

I have since come to appreciate what a privilege it is to be working on bees without varroa, I have since taken my M3 pests and diseases module exam, and seeing all the hardship that the mite brings to the bees and the subsequent vigilance that the beekeeper has to maintain.  Our bees on Islay are strong and we have now gone though two winters and no colony losses, no varroa treatments needed with the subsequent weakening it all brings.  At worst it feels that our main problem is bouts of chalkbrood in some colonies resulting from prolonged spells of wet, cool weather.

Through the 2019 season, following the departure from the project of our mentor and one of the apprentices it was down to myself and Jason to maintain and develop the colonies. This was a steep learning experience and all the knowledge previously gleaned was pulled into focus and honed. Naturally mistakes were made, simple ones too, but it was a major learning experience, and stressful, worrying about colonies and whether we were doing the right things.  Despite all this however we managed to make increase from six colonies to ten with another couple acquired from Colonsay. So, we finished the season with twelve colonies.

These have all survived the winter with one unfortunate colony coming through queenless, so a re-queening required.  We practiced queen rearing last season with mixed results. But, here too, lessons and an increased understanding of process and bee mentality have been learnt ready for better successes this season.  My long standing carpentry skills have been drawn upon too this winter with building many new hives from reclaimed wood (another project under the Islay Development Initiative framework) bees and bee-space are very precise and this has been a very exacting challenge, I just hope it all works out or a summer of brace comb misery awaits!

My study has gone on with a desire to understand honeybees (Tom Seeley’s books my winter reading) and how to succeed in keeping them in good fettle and working well for their pollination and conservation benefit and that of the products they produce.  There has been much interest in people wanting to keep bees on the island as a result of the project, and it is the duty of the project to equip them with the knowledge to do this well and with bees sourced from varroa -free sources locally. 

To this end, my learning and intense study with expert beekeepers, and for three module exams, plus a weekend National Diploma in Beekeeping short course with Tony Harris on how to teach beekeeping, https://national-diploma-beekeeping.org

This course has prepared me to at least be able to provide basic beekeeping skills to interested locals here on Islay. This was done through a theory course this Feb/March.  Covid-19 restrictions latterly prevented the completion of two more module papers, and now any further training courses for the time being. However, with a new apprentice beekeeper on the project the new season has started and finally we have some decent bee weather for the colonies to benefit from, and a new young person to teach.

I hope to prove my abilities through 2020 both to myself and to the doubters here on the island, with successful queen rearing, nucleus development and healthy and sustained colonies with some honey and product reserves at the end of the season.