UK Apiarists Seeking To Revive Ancient Variety Of Black Honeybee - Independent

[hatrack]

For decades, Britain's native black bee has been an outcast. The Victorians threw Apis mellifera mellifera out of hives in favour of more industrious foreign species. Modern beekeepers brand it lazy and aggressive.

Now, the nation's original honeybee is coming in from the cold. Scientists believe the insect that made honey for the tables of medieval kings could reverse the collapse of bee numbers that has imperilled the annual pollination of crops worth £165m.

The Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders' Association (Bibba) believes the black honeybee, which has a thicker coat, could be hardy enough to survive the 21st century. Its researchers hope to map wild populations across the British Isles with a view to reintroducing it to commercial hives, which produce 5,000 tonnes of honey a year. People are asked to take pictures of it whenever they see it.

Bee populations slumped by 30 per cent in a single winter, 2007-08, the British Beekeepers Association (Bbka) says. The decline is unexplained but the potential causes are pesticides, disease, mites and milder winters that encourage them to forage too soon. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is spending £4.3m on research into the decline. Bibba believes the distinctively-striped black bee could be the answer. The black bee was used for centuries as the honey-producing bee but was replaced by more productive bees from Italy and eastern Europein the 19th century.

EDIT

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/new-life-for-the-ancient-black-honeybee-1686781.html

[hedgehog]

1. A prime example of the need to preserve heritage breeds of seeds and animals!

[phantom power]

2. "hardy enough to survive the 21st century"

There's some zeitgeist for ya.

[MineralMan]

3. And here it is. We once had them in the USA, too:

[depakid]

4. Another one

The hardy black bee, whose honey once graced the tables of medieval monarchs, is being revived as numbers of imported crossbreeds are cut drastically.