|
Dun Aonghusa
|
|
|---|
Originally titled:- BEE BREEDING - THE "DUN AONGHUSA" SYSTEM by Micheál Mac Giolla Coda, this article was written originally for the 1995 Golden Jubilee of the South Tipperary Beekeepers Association.
The massive fortress which stands on a cliff top on Inis Mor, largest of the Aran Islands in Galway Bay, consisting of three semi-circular stone ramparts radiating inland from the sea was probably constructed in prehistoric times by an early tribe which inhabited Ireland known as the Fir Bolg. Like Staigue Fort in South-west Kerry it is reputed to be one of their last strongholds of defence against the incursions of later Celtic invaders such as the Thuatha De Danann and Milesians. At least this was what I learned when in the primary school I was given my first history book...
Stair Seanchas na hEireann - Cuid a hAon
The historic story
of Ireland - Part One.
True or false the legend made fascinating reading and added a moment of drama and imagination to the hum-drum life of a rather bored primary pupil.
RACE CONSERVATION
It looked like the last heroic stand of an indigenous race against an invading army of foreign usurpers. Little did I think then that the reason for its construction and the intricacies of its defence-works would serve as a basic plan for the conservation of native dark bees and the establishment of a breeding programme and mating apiary for The South Tipperary pure native queen bees and drones on the slopes of the Galtee Mountains in Co. Tipperary.
The concentric defensive walls were interspersed with chevrons of standing stones pointing outwards so as to afford added protection to the defending warriors of the garrison and making penetration to the interior more difficult to would be attackers. One could say that this labyrinthine maze of standing stones was the ancient equivalent of more modern day barbed wire entanglements. This was geographic isolation at its best, its primary purpose the conservation of a race under severe threat of extinction. |
GEOGRAPHIC ISOLATION
Apart from using instrumental insemination the only sure way of obtaining pure mating of selected queens and drones is to place them in an isolated mating apiary. Such isolation can only be guaranteed in an island where no other bees exist and which is far enough from the mainland as to be inaccessible to undesirable drones.
As our native bee breeding group is located in an inland county we have no ready access to an off shore island nor do we have the sea to afford protection from one or more sides. It was necessary therefore to take stock of our surrounding countryside so as to determine which geographical features of our locality might provide some isolation for our mating apiary and protection from incursions of undesirable drones.
We soon realised however that we were very fortunate in that most of the colonies of our group members are located in the valley between the high mountain ranges of the Galtees and the Knockmealdowns. The valley which is almost twenty miles long and averages six miles in width runs in an east-west direction so that it is adequately protected from the north and south by the mountains. The most effective barrier is the Galtee range rising from 2,000 - 3,000 feet above sea level on the north side, and cutting deep into these mountains are steep narrow glens. It became quite obvious that one of these glens, centrally situated in the valley would afford the best possible location for our mating apiary and so it was duly established at the northern extremity of one such glen at an altitude of about 800 feet and three miles from the nearest apiary. The first step was to move in eight drone producing colonies all of which were headed by closely related queens of one particular strain specially selected for its docility. As scarcely any forage is available until the flowering of the Ling in mid-August it was necessary to provide a constant supply of food including pollen right through the summer.
Research has proven that under favourable conditions queens can fly up to four miles to mate and drones can travel much further, so the best we could hope for was semi-isolation. However having taken some further precautionary steps in preceding years we hope we have achieved a fairly high level of pure matings. Added to this is the fact that strains of the Dark European Bee are known to mate more locally, at higher altitudes, and at lower temperatures than foreign races. Indeed the conditions in our mating apiary were so severe last July (1992) and August that I am sure it would deter any self respecting drone of foreign origin from coming anywhere near the place, but still we got a high percentage of successful matings. The ideal towards which we are striving is the mono-straining of the whole valley. We can only work towards this in stages, improving our position year by year.
|
|---|
| David Jackson (left), Brian Palmer, Redmond Williams and John Carrigan at the isolated mating apiary known as Dun Aonghusa in the Galtee mountains, during 1991. |
GUARD RINGS
There is little danger of drones flying over the mountains from the north into our mating apiary which we now call Dun Aonghusa. The first "guard ring" consists of three apiaries which form a semi-circle about three and a half miles distant to the south, south-east and south- west. Requeening of these apiaries had been completed in 1991 with young queens of selected pure strains, having first eliminated all queens heading colonies showing undesirable characteristics.
Our intention was to establish a buffer zone having a preponderance of drones with desirable characteristics and which would be most likely to mate with queens which might escape the attentions of the drones in the mating apiary. Drone comb is placed in the brood nest area of the best colonies in these apiaries in the autumn so as to obtain sexually mature drones as early as possible in the next season, and additional drone comb is placed close to the broodnest in early spring to provide a succession of drones through the season.
Similar "guard rings" have been established in 1991 at approximately four and six miles distant from the mating apiary by progressively culling and requeening the intervening apiaries so as to produce more desirable drones. As a further precaution we are in the process of requeening members apiaries on the eastern and western extremities of the valley. We have also cultivated the goodwill of other beekeepers in the valley who are not members of our group and hope to be in a position next year to provide them with a requeening service wherever necessary. This year also members have removed many wild colonies and identified the location of others to be dealt with in the future. Apart from breeding, we feel that the identification and monitoring of wild colonies and co-operation with other beekeepers will pay dividends in the prevention and eradication of brood disease and in dealing with Varroa if and when it becomes necessary.
During the past season (1992) we have learned a lot about bee breeding, but feel we are still only scratching on the surface. We have practised time isolation to a certain extent by stimulating the rearing of drones as early as possible in the season and by enforcing the retention of drones in selected colonies at the end of season through dequeening, so as to obtain purer matings when the drones of less desirable colonies have been cast out.
COUNTING THE COST
Queen rearing and breeding has proved to be much more expensive than at first visualised, in time. in bees, in honey and in money. To date we have received no funding from any source for what must be a unique and important research and development project in honeybee improvement. We can not afford to purchase equipment which is sorely needed for the setting up of an instrumental insemination facility, nor can we avail of special training courses in breeding and queen rearing which would prove of immense benefit. Sales of queens have helped to defray some of the financial costs incurred in setting up the project and we have received tremendous encouragement and advice from BIBBA. However it will be necessary to develop more economic methods of queen rearing and mating if the project is to survive, and it will be necessary to drastically reduce costs especially those involving time and travel if it is to remain a viable proposition.
TIME ISOLATION
In a recent BIBBA Newsletter, we read of another form of time isolation which hopefully may help to revolutionise our breeding programme as well as helping all beekeepers to obtain controlled matings within their own apiaries. The system which originated in Poland may be practised in any apiary right through the season irrespective of the constitution of the bee population of the surrounding district. It could prove a boon by saving time and cutting costs incurred in travelling to a distant mating apiary as well as the huge expense involved in maintaining drone colonies and mating nuclei at high elevations or other areas where constant feeding must be resorted to. This system has been practised with success during the past season by John Dews of BIBBA and we eagerly await his report on this experiment in the next issue of the BIBBA Groups Newsletter.
Micheál Mac Giolla Coda.
Originated... 19 October 2003, Revised & Upgraded... 24 February 2005, Completed... 26 February 2005, Revised... 15 June 2005,
|
The fortress is known as Dun Aonghusa or Fort of the god Aongus who was one of the most
important deities of our pagan ancestors. The site was probably selected so that attack
from the sea was made virtually impossible, due to the impregnable nature of the cliff face
which towers hundreds of feet above the wild Atlantic and the turbulent waters of Galway
Bay. In the inner sanctum was the citadel a place of maximum security where no doubt were
housed the most important individuals:- the nobility including the king and queen and their
royal family.
