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From:
"Peter L. Borst" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 25 Apr 2007 11:16:11 -0400
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1950:

Buckfast is in the south-west of England, only a few feet above sea
level and only a few miles from the Atlantic coast.  Three miles to
the north-west there is the wide plateau of Dartmoor, which rises to a
height of 700 m (2 300 ft).

Owing to our particular geographical situation we have an excessive
rainfall, with an annual average of 165 cm (65 in.) compared with 58.5
cm (23 in.) for the south of England.  The weather is extremely
unsettled and changeable

The average annual honey yield over the last thirty years has been 30
kg (66 lb.) per colony.  Thus we have a favourable balance compared
with the average production in America or in Europe.

This year (1949) our average crop has been 72.5 kg (160 lb.) per
colony, but 22 colonies with queens from the same breeding queen
achieved an average of 92.5 kg (204 lb.)

Brother Adam
Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey
Bee World
31(12), 1950, p 89-91

* * *

1991:

In a recent issue of Bee World, the official organ of the
International Bee Research Association, appeared a leading article by
an American scientist expressing a fear that in the course of the
winter of 1989-90 more than 1 million colonies perished, primarily due
to the ravages of the tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi).  He likewise
stressed: "Losses from Varroa jacobsoni were predicted, but losses
from Acarapis woodi were not widely expected."  A few weeks later a
letter reached me from a commercial beekeeper from Vermont, who
reported that he lost half the number of his colonies in the spring of
1990, due to the tracheal mite, notwithstanding the use of menthol.
He stated: "We have a bee capable of meeting our honey production
requirements, but none able to withstand the diseases to which the
honey bee is subject." In actual fact the loss of colonies recently
suffered throughout North America could have been largely prevented if
the necessary precautionary measures had been taken in time.

In retrospect these reports remind me of the Isle of Wight epidemic,
which according to official estimates, in the matter of about 12
years, caused a loss of more than 90 % of the colonies in the British
Isles.  The first outbreak of this disease was recorded in 1904 in the
Isle of Wight.  On reaching the mainland it spread like wildfire to
every part of the British Isles.  It reached Devon in 1913 and our own
apiaries the following year.  In the winter of 1915-16 we lost close
to two-thirds of our colonies.  The colonies lost belonged to the
indigenous dark native variety, which had existed in this part of
Europe since the termination of the last Ice age.  Those that survived
were mainly of Ligurian origin - the Alps of northern Italy bearing
that name.  The bees of this region are leather colored not bright
yellow or golden.  We had here a classic instance of a hopelessly
susceptible race and in the Ligurian one manifesting, in identical
environmental conditions, a high resistance to the tracheal mite.
Moreover, before the demise of the native race every kind of disease
of the honey bee could be found in our apiaries.  With the eradication
of the native variety, all the diseases, apart from acarine, vanished
simultaneously.  Needless to say, these findings proved a far-reaching
turning point in our beekeeping and still more so in our efforts at
improving the honey bee.  Before very long we also found that the
bright yellow or golden strains, irrespective of their origin,
including a combination we developed ourselves, have proved invariably
exceptionally susceptible to the tracheal mite.  Also, we found that
this extreme susceptibility will be transmitted by these bright golden
drones and dominate when crossed with queens of highly resistant
strains.  Why this should be so, we do not know.

Brother Adam
An Inescapable Challenge
American Bee Journal
131(8) 1991 p508-510

-- 
Peter L. Borst

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