There's been some talk lately about the temper of Buckfast bees. One
reporter says they were gentle as kittens in the 60's, but now they are
somewaht agressive. Thinks they might be bred with african drones.
    I think Buckfast bees have always been on the agressive side. My
first commercial bee job was managing 500 colonies for an orchard in NW
New York. The year before I started, 1981, the manager bought queens
from just about everybody. 10 of these, and 25 of those. 15 of this
breeder, and a bunch of Buckfast. At that time, most of the bees were of
Italian lines - yellow bees mostly. The Buckfast bees were dark colored.
Well, you didn't have to open a colony to tell if they were Buckfast.
Walking by the entrance was all that was necessary. Most of the
Buckfasts were mean, ankle biting so and so's. They'd cover your pants
from the knees to the ankles. Always black bees never yellow ones. I got
rid of most of them, until the tracheal mites showed up. Then it was the
Buckfast's time to shine. Testy as ever, especially the bees from f1 and
f2 queens(daughter and grand daughter queens). Now you can tell the
Italian bees without opening the cover - they're all dead!  Mike