Studies showed that British bees retained some markers from native bees in certain gene loci. This is not the same as the hybrids having 50% of the native bee genome. Native British bees do survive in remote areas and all our mongrels have interbred with native bees in the past, but it's like saying Neanderthals survive because their fragmented genome is present in our own.
As for Buckfasts, they seem to do very nicely in some areas that are remote and climatically quite different from Devonshire. They are probably the nearest we've got to breeding a bee as domesticated and 'improved' livestock.
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