BUILDING A BETTER BEE

You might think that all honeybees are the same, but not so. One fascinating sub-species is Apis Mellifera Buckfast, a British bred hybrid that hails from Buckfast Abbey in Devon.

The Buckfast bee was the culmination of the life’s work of Brother Adam (born Karl Kehrle in Germany in 1898) who arrived to become a Benedictine monk aged 14, was assigned to the bee hives and ultimately became a world expert in bee breeding. Brother Adam travelled the world, bringing home bee strains with genetic advantages to make his lines more gentle and productive.

The Buckfast bee is now raised throughout Europe by beekeepers belonging to the Federation of European Buckfast Beekeepers (G.D.E.B.).