We need nature’s pollinators

Damien Enright says the decline of the bee may spell the end of our survival

LAST weekend, my brother-in-law, a semi-retired west Cork farmer, who spends more time with his horses than his cows, was telling me how his father and their neighbours used to attract the swarms of wild bees that often passed over the fields in summer.

Tin cans banged together had the magical effect of bringing the swarm down. Once it had alighted, a sheet was thrown over it, and at nightfall, a turkey’s wing feather was used to gently sweep the worker bees to one side and reach the queen. She was then transferred into a butter-box and the swarm followed through the hole in the side “like water going down a plughole”. These farmers never got stung so long as they were gentle with the bees.