Author Archives: Jonathan Getty

About Jonathan Getty

Jonathan Getty is a former chair of Belfast & District branch of the Ulster Beekeepers Association which has over 250 members and is a current committee member. He is at least a fourth generation beekeeper in the Getty family. His main beekeeping interest is queen rearing based on our native bee Apis mellifera mellifera. He started up the Belfast Minnowburn queenrearing group in 2012 and is currently involved with a new queenrearing group in Co. Tyrone which started up in 2020. He manages over 100 colonies of his own spread over about a dozen apiary sites in NI. He also rears between 400-500 queens per season using 200 Apideas. Jonathan holds a BSc Hons in Psychology from Queens University Belfast and gained a postgraduate teaching qualification at Stranmillis Training College. He is a fluent Spanish speaker.

Queen posting dates

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Jonathan Getty

Some people have started to email me about posting dates. I don’t start grafting until early May. If you ordered early, your queen(s) will be ready in June. I will contact you directly when I have queens available and any … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 17 Comments

Nucs January 2019

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Jonathan Getty

Nucs are looking good at the moment. Small amounts of pollen coming in

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

last few queens 2018

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Jonathan Getty

I have a few queens left if anyone wants to order one.

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

How to introduce your queen

Posted on July 25, 2018 by Jonathan Getty

When you receive your queen, I would suggest you first introduce her to a nuc of young queenless bees rather than directly trying to requeen a full colony, especially if it has been queenless for a long time and is … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Posting dates for queens

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Jonathan Getty

I hope to start posting queens around the middle of June so if you ordered early there should not be too long to wait now. The weather has been great for a couple of weeks but there was a slow … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 19 Comments

Grafting well under way

Posted on May 18, 2018 by Jonathan Getty

The first batch of queens is emerging in the incubator this morning. If you ordered early, ie before March, I would hope to be able to start posting queens by the middle of June. If you ordered more recently it … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment