Native Irish Honey Bee Society – Apis mellifera mellifera

Native Irish Honey Bee Society
Apis mellifera mellifera

CSI Pollen Project

CSI pollen project – become actively involved
CSI pollen (Citizen Scientist Investigation) is an international project (COLOSS) seeking the help of Irish beekeepers to collect data on the diversity of pollen collect by honeybees in Ireland. The nutritional value of pollen varies between plants; hence to maintain healthy stocks a high diversity of pollen is desirable, while a low diversity decreases colony vitality. In this project participating beekeepers will be required to collect pollen samples over a 24 hour period at three week intervals during April to September 2015. The beekeeper will then sort a sub-sample of the pollen loads collected on each day by colour and submit the data online. More details on the project are available at: http://www.coloss.org/taskforces/csi and a picture manual explaining the collection of pollen can be accessed at the link below.

CSI_Pollen_Manual_Ireland_2015

An article in the March edition of An Beachaire will give further information on the CSI pollen project. If you would like to participate in this project or require further information, please contact the National co-ordinators immediately:
For the Republic of Ireland:
Dr Mary F Coffey: Mary.Frances.Coffey@ul.ie or 086 4033676
For Northern Ireland
Mr Robert McCreery:  Robert.McCreery@neelb.org.uk

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