# General beekeeping > Starting out >  Honey bees on Tiree?

## Richard

Is anyone aware of any hives on Tiree?  Because of my work, I currently live in Surrey and am halfway through a 10 week beginner's course, but my wife lives on the island and I was wondering whether there are any kept on the island at the moment.  It would be nice to make contact with someone who has beekeeping experience.  I am not thinking of keeping bees there at the moment.

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## Jimbo

Hi Richard,

I am unaware of any beekeepers on Tiree (You could contact the SBA membership secretary and ask him). I am however aware of other beekeepers on other Islands eg Mull and Colonsay etc who have native bees and no Varroa mites. If you are thinking of keeping bees on Tiree then I would try and source the same eg Native dark bees and no varroa locally. The last thing you want to do is import foreign bees with varroa onto the Island. If you do find any beekeepers on Titree I would be interested in a sample of their bees to establish if they are also native. I would also have thought that keeping bees on Tiree would be a bit of a challenge due the amount of wind the Island gets. Good luck with your course and if you decide to keep bees then there are a lot of people on the forum who will help you and answer all your questions

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## Trog

Hello Richard, and welcome.  As far as I know there are no beekeepers on Tiree, though there are on Coll (and, of course, Colonsay, Mull and Iona).   Wind is a problem on Tiree though you might manage with good shelter (eg ruined byre) and extra feeding.  Our local, native types don't find wind and rain too much of a problem but beekeeper intervention is sometimes necessary to prevent starvation (eg last May!).  If you do decide to get bees for Tiree, please PM me and I'll give you a list of  varroa-free sources.  (Likewise if you come across any beekeepers there that I don't know about, I'd love to hear about them!)

It would be nice if your wife could keep a lookout for honeybees on local flowers (does gorse survive Tiree's breezes?) in warm weather; that could indicate feral colonies from way back or, indeed, a nearby beekeeper!

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## marknjo

Hi Richard
We keep bees on Tiree!
We currently have 3 hives in our garden in Balephuil. This will be our 4th summer of beekeeping. We started after going on a fantastic course on Colonsay with Andrew Abrahams. Andrew supplied us with a nucleus of his Varroa free dark bees.
The weather here definitely is a challenge: the hives are located in a sheltered spot but still have to be strapped down and we wrap them in the winter to keep the driving rain out. Fingers crossed they seem to be doing OK in spite of this and the machair honey is delicious!
Feel free to come and see us the next time that you are on Tiree.

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## gavin

Just one link-up like this makes me feel that the whole SBAi business has been worthwhile.  But, of course, there has been so much more ....

Andrew stops by here sometimes.  If you are reading, take a bow, you have done so much for beekeeping in the west.

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## Jon

Tis amazing what can come to light.

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## Jimbo

That's amazing that there are beekeepers on Tiree. No point in getting a sample for wing morphometry if they came from Andrew. Talking of Andrew I am currently checking wing samples for Morphometry that he brought back from Tarraleah in Tasmania where there is beekeepers that are conserving the native dark bees that originally came from the UK. When finished the morphometry I can see an interesting wee article for the SBA magazine.

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## Neils

> Just one link-up like this makes me feel that the whole SBAi business has been worthwhile.  But, of course, there has been so much more ....
> 
> Andrew stops by here sometimes.  If you are reading, take a bow, you have done so much for beekeeping in the west.


 I was reading this thread earlier and thinking the same thing, but having just left a public house thought better of posting it  :Big Grin: 

MarknJo, welcome to the forum and hopefully we'll hear more of you beekeeping escapades.

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## Richard

> Just one link-up like this makes me feel that the whole SBAi business has been worthwhile.  But, of course, there has been so much more ....
> 
> Andrew stops by here sometimes.  If you are reading, take a bow, you have done so much for beekeeping in the west.


Please don't ever doubt it!  It is a wonderful resource.

Richard

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## Trog

Excellent news that there are now managed bees on Tiree.  It must have been about four years since I was approached by a local there who wanted to keep bees but moved to the mainland before we could sort anything out for him.  What are your plans to prevent inbreeding, if you started with just the one hive?

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## Richard

> Excellent news that there are now managed bees on Tiree.  It must have been about four years since I was approached by a local there who wanted to keep bees but moved to the mainland before we could sort anything out for him.  What are your plans to prevent inbreeding, if you started with just the one hive?


I plan to set up my first hive in Surrey later this year and to use the next 4 or 5 years until retirement to gain as much experience as possible before starting a hive on the island, but the prevention of disease and inbreeding will be priorities. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of good advice available when the time comes!
Richard

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## Jon

> What are your plans to prevent inbreeding, if you started with just the one hive?


Whoops, spirit of Eric Mc Carthur again and this is the rare case which is relevant as it is a completely isolated island population.

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## Trog

One assumes it's isolated, unless ferals have survived from way back, though drones might make it from Coll.    We have ferals on Mull, just over the water, thanks to the lack of varroa so if bees were ever kept on Tiree, you never know.

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## marknjo

> What are your plans to prevent inbreeding, if you started with just the one hive?


Andrew sent us a second (unrelated) queen from Colonsay which we used to start a second hive. The third hive was a swarm from this second hive. We will be on the lookout for another (black & varroa-free) queen either this year or next depending on conditions.

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## Stromnessbees

> Hi Richard
> We keep bees on Tiree!
> We currently have 3 hives in our garden in Balephuil. This will be our 4th summer of beekeeping. We started after going on a fantastic course on Colonsay with Andrew Abrahams. Andrew supplied us with a nucleus of his Varroa free dark bees.
> The weather here definitely is a challenge: the hives are located in a sheltered spot but still have to be strapped down and we wrap them in the winter to keep the driving rain out. Fingers crossed they seem to be doing OK in spite of this and the machair honey is delicious!
> Feel free to come and see us the next time that you are on Tiree.


Well done for keeping bees on Tiree and even getting honey from them!
I googled images of the island and they showed a lot of windsurfers but no trees, which indicates that beekeeping can be a challenge.

A lot of areas in Orkney are similar, and especially on the Outer Isles it takes quite an effort to make a success of beekeeping.

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