The University of Galway has called on people to monitor hundreds of wild and native honeybee colonies around Ireland.
The appeal, from the Galway Honeybee Research Centre based in the university, comes on World Bee Day which is held annually every 20 May.
Professor Grace McCormack, who is the head of the School of Natural Sciences at University of Galway, said that wild colonies of honeybees are typically found in tree cavities as well as in roofs.
“Those colonies that survive, we will come out and sample the colonies, then we will carry out geonomics, their morphology and behaviour to prove that they can live for a long period of time on their own,” she said.
Prof McCormack, who is also the lead researcher at the Galway Honeybee Research Centre, told RTÉ’s News At One that people can register as “custodians” of the colonies and track their activity into the future.
“These wild bees provide a really good potential stock for beekeepers. They will give us really good information, how they feed and whether they have evolved a resistance to mites and diseases and can live despite the presence of them,” she said.
