Buckfast bee

The Buckfast bee is a strain of honey bee. It is a man-made bee race, a cross of many strains of bees, developed by "Brother Adam", (born Karl Kehrle on 3 August 1898 in Germany), who was in charge of beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey in the United Kingdom, where the bees are still bred today. Most of the breeding work in Europe is done by breeders belonging to the breeders association Gemeinschaft der Europäischen Buckfastimker. This organisation is maintaining a pedigree for Buckfast bees, originating from Brother Adam's years.

Origin

In the early 20th century, bee populations were being decimated by tracheal mites. This condition, later called "acarine" disease, after the acarine parasitic mite that invaded the bees' tracheal tubes and shortened their lives, was killing off thousands of colonies in the British Isles.

In 1916, only 16 surviving colonies were left in the abbey. All of them were either pure Ligurian (Italian) or of Ligurian origin, hybrids between Ligurian and the English black bee A. m. mellifera. Brother Adam also imported some more Italian queens. From these he began to develop what would come to be known as the Buckfast bee.