Buckfast

Buckfast bees. Photo: Frank Mickley, Mike Phobos (Author). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

The Buckfast bee is a cross of the western honey bee ( Apis mellifera ). It is the result of numerous breeding advances made by Karl Kehrle, a beekeeper at the English monastery of Buckfast, beginning in 1916, and later by the international community of Buckfast breeders. Today, the Buckfast bee is found worldwide.

In 1913, the European Dark Bee ( Apis mellifera mellifera ), native to the British Isles, was threatened by a bee die-off. Officially, the cause was identified as the tracheal mite. More recent findings suggest that a virus caused by this mite—as a vector (or 'disease carrier')—is likely.

Kehrle then began breeding for resistance using surviving bee colonies. He crossed queens of the Italian bee ( A. m. ligustica ) with drones of the dark bee. Later, he began systematically mating other subspecies of honey bee ^to create artificial hybrids that would be more resistant, more productive, and more peaceful.

Karl Kehrle's breeding result was a "genetically stable", peaceful, swarm-resistant bee that produced above-average yields when used in a modern way with the square Dadant magazine hive.