Peter and All,
 Your right about bad  beekeeping. I think the weather was much warmer than normal last June.  We had two weeks with no rain also.
 The bees he had was a dark native bee. The beekeepers I talked with told me that Ireland was trying to just keep native bees. The beekeeping organizations I talked with said the same thing and wanted to keep imported bees out. 
 What I did see was one of the three hives did the swarming. He was new at it and was in a learning curve .
The Best
Roy

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