Nine bean rows will I have there, and a hive for the honey bee, was William Butler Yeats's declared ambition for the Lake Isle of Innisfree. And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
But the bee-loud glades will be silent in the poet's native county following a decision by the Department of Agriculture to embark on the most ambitious slaughter policy since the foundation of the State, the destruction of six million bees in south Co Sligo.
The Department decided on this drastic plan of action last night following a meeting with the Federation of Irish Beekeepers to discuss the control of the disease, varroasis, which has been found in Sligo for the first time in Irish bee hives. The disease, caused by a parasitic mite, varroa jacobsoni, poses no risk to human health but destroys honey bees by feeding on their blood.
The Department has a traditional policy of slaughter to control diseases in animals and birds and it has slaughtered millions of cattle to eradicate bovine TB and thousands to control BSE. A Department spokesman said yesterday that, following a meeting with the federation, a decision had been taken to destroy the infected bees.
He said he understood nearly a dozen beekeepers were involved, and an estimated 100 hives would be wiped out in the operation. The spokesman could not specify how south Sligo would be turned into a bee-silent glade, but a prominent beekeeper said it was likely the hives would be treated with chemicals or burned.
"It is not an easy job to do," said Mr John Donoghue, the incoming president of the federation. "You have to wait at this time of year until around 11 p.m. when all the bees come home and then block the exit to the hive and either kill them with chemicals or burn the hives."
He said the news would "send shivers up the spine of every beekeeper in Ireland", but he accepted that this might have to happen because of the destruction caused by the disease.
"The killing of the bees may not prevent the spread of the disease because wild bees carry the mite as well, and there is no way of getting rid of every wild bee in Sligo.
"The fact that the Department has decided to destroy the hives may mean that the problem is localised, and that is good news."