# General beekeeping > Native honeybees >  Native Irish Honeybee Conference

## Jon

10th November in Athlone.

Be there or be square.

You can book via paypal from the website.

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## mbc

Trade stands 'more information' clicky doesnt work.  
Interesting line up of speakers, how long would it take to drive there from Rosslare ?

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## Jon

2 hours 54 minutes according to google maps.
Takes about the same time from Belfast.

The page was only put up today and is a work in progress.
I'll get on to Sean about the links.

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## Blackcavebees

You can't say its not a central location ..... It's the middle of the island

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## Jon

Big day coming up.
Anyone else going to be there other than Gavin and Phil McAnespie?

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## Feckless Drone

> Big day coming up.
> Anyone else going to be there other than Gavin and Phil McAnespie?


Amm envious, also of the fun you will all have. But, here in cold tayside the day job and life keeps interrupting beekeeping

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## susbees

Indeed. Exam tomorrow, tender for black bee work in today. Now breath-holding. Enjoy...

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## Jon

> tender for black bee work in today


What are you hoping to get funded?

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## Neils

Sadly not, my bee excursion this year turned out to be Devon. Potential house move and shenanigans have taken over the latter half if the year.

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## gavin

Folk across Scotland are packing their bags now .... well, one in Tayside and one somewhere S of Glasgow. I hope that they've stocked up well with stout in Athlone.  The organisers have increased the capacity of the conference to 250 to cope with the demand, quite some feat for such a new organisation.

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## Jon

It's hard to estimate how many will just turn up on Sunday morning without having pre-booked.

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## susbees

Edited out.

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## susbees

> It's hard to estimate how many will just turn up on Sunday morning without having pre-booked.


Hope it's all going to plan Jon  :Smile:

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## gavin

Jon says - so far! We're over the hurdle of surviving the bar session last night and enjoying the talks.

Jon is last up this afternoon so he's on the coffee rather than the stout at the moment.

And here's the proof ... 


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## gavin

It is a superb meeting - great talks, great atmosphere and around 250 people here. Fantastic level of interest in native Irish bees. 

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## gavin

So, a brief resume.  An introduction to the day from RTE's and BBC R4 Farming Today's presenter Ella McSweeney.  Ella has been Tweeting on the NIHBS conference.

Trade stands, craic, friendliness, atmosphere, mists over the Shannon, and talks by .....

Romee van der Zee (twice)
Dara Scott
Robert Paxton
Eoghan Mac Giolla Coda
Jon Getty

It never occurred to me to point the phone at anyone until lunch, so here's Robert in his natural habitat:



and Dara in his  :Smile: : 


I see Pete Little gets a mention!
http://www.advancescience.com/hive-alive

Special mention to Blackcavebees and (in another place) Teemore, nice to meet you guys.

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## gavin

Romee gave us a fascinating insight into the bees of Texel and other islands off the Dutch coast.  Part of her first talk was a sneak preview of a paper coming out in January next year which promises to be of interest to all who follow the fortunes of Amm and who are not afraid to delve into the world of SNPs, DNA markers and multivariate analysis.  In the afternoon we heard about colony loss data and what some of it may mean.

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## gavin

The leading role of the Galtee group and Micheal Mac Giolla Coda in particular in guiding the effort on native honeybees in Ireland was marked with the presentation to him of the latest in technology in the form of an iPad.  Not sure who Micheal is, or indeed how to pronounce his name? Catch this interview with him here from Gormanston a few years back.




Eoghan (pronounced Owen) gave us a full and informative insight into how their breeding programme works.  This slide illustrates a frame that would be scored as poor for brood pattern.

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## gavin

And lastly, this reprobate upstart from Belfast gave us his thoughts on setting up a breeding group.  With a real drive in the northern part of the island which may result in seven active breeding groups by the end of next year, there was a lot of interest in this from the rest of the island.



Watch out for updates at the NIHBS site.  Several of the presentations will be available there before long and we'll point you there when they are up.  

Want a full report on the meeting?  Sign up to NIHBS for 20 Euros and you'll get one in the next edition of the Four Seasons!

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## Blackcavebees

Good to meet up with you Gavin, hope you got home safely. Good conference, hard to believe NIHBS just 1 year old.  Jon did well too. Worth the the four hour drive. Craic was mighty.

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## gavin

Glad you got back safely.  I must be one of the few still in Athlone.  Who in their right mind would rush off this island unless they had a pressing engagement elsewhere?!  Had intended to try out the oldest pub in Ireland but the weather isn't so good tonight and it is a 10 min walk so I'm uploading pics in the B&B instead.  Travelling back tomorrow at a leisurely pace.  Amazing progress in that year and lots of promise of more to come.

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## Teemore

I'll echo Stephen and say it was good to meet you at the conference Gavin.  Conference went really well - well done to all concerned.

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## Jon

There was a pretty good turnout of beekeepers from the north. I would say we had 40 or so in attendance out of a crowd of around 250

nihbs-conference-crowd.jpg nihbs-conference-presentation.jpg

Micheál Mac Giolla Coda got an award (an ipad to keep his colony records!)for the work he has done to promote the native bee in Ireland.
Guy with the mike is NIHBS treasurer Séan Finnerty and the other guy in a suit is NIHBS chairperson Pat Deasy

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## Adam

'Looks like it was a well-attended conference; If there was one thing you guys got out of the conference, what would it be? Or were there several?

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## gavin

For me, in the words of the east Antrim/Armagh guys (Hi Teemore!), mighty craic. Perhaps ninety craic in the words of Christy Moore but that's another matter.

Plus the realisation that if we can do a fifth of what they are doing in Ireland in Scotland within a couple of years we'll be making a huge difference.

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## Jon

That was the Isle of man though Gav!

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## Jon

Got forwarded more photos today.
These ones are excellent.
Lots of familiar faces from the Irish bee scene and further afield.

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## Jon

The speaker presentations are up on the NIHBS website now.

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## Feckless Drone

Jon - all of these presentations are really interesting with a lot of material that could be used in beginners classes as well. Strongly recommended reading. Thank you for the link.

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## mbc

> The speaker presentations are up on the NIHBS website now.


Thanks for posting, excellent presentations by the look of the slides, makes me more regretful that I couldnt come along.

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