First Honey Stores

🐝 Inishturk Hive Update – A Sweet Milestone

We’re delighted to report that both of our colonies are doing well. We’ve named the queens Grace and O’Malley, in honour of Ireland’s legendary Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley, reflecting the island’s rich maritime heritage.

Even more encouraging, we’ve seen our first signs of honey being stored in the hives. The colonies are building strongly, with young eggs present and brood patterns filling out well—an excellent indication that both queens are laying successfully.

This marks a particularly special moment for the project, as it represents the first honey being stored by the bees on Inishturk as part of the Native Irish Honey Bee Sanctuary initiative. While there is still a long way to go, it is an important milestone and a visible sign that the colonies are settling successfully into their island home.

If progress continues at the current rate, we hope to add the first honey supers within the next week or two. Supers are the boxes placed above the brood chamber where bees store surplus honey, allowing beekeepers to harvest honey while leaving the colony’s essential stores untouched.

For a project that only began on World Bee Day 2026, it is wonderful to see the bees thriving and beginning to produce honey so soon. Every frame of brood, every foraging flight, and now every drop of honey represents another step forward in establishing a long-term sanctuary for the Native Irish Honey Bee on Inishturk Island.

The project continues to monitor the colonies using BroodMinder technology, helping us better understand how bees perform in an offshore Atlantic environment and creating a valuable comparison with sister colonies on the mainland.

🐝 Here’s to Grace, O’Malley, and the next chapter in the story of the Native Irish Honey Bee Sanctuary.