It is fairly certain that the Dark European Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, has been native to mainland Britain since before the closing of the Channel Landbridge, when sea levels rose following the last Ice Age. They became isolated and adapted to the different conditions they found themselves in.
Abberton Native Bee Group/ Essex 4 Bees – CO2
Native bee breeding group based at Abberton Reservoir
Scottish Native Honey Bee Society
Would you like to support the keeping of native honey bees in Scotland? Join SNHBS, find out all about native honey bees, how to help them and help shape the new society at its first meeting.
The Native Irish Honey Bee
The Native Irish Honey Bee Apis mellifera mellifera Launched on the 18th September by our close friends and colleagues in Ireland, this book will become a ‘go to’ source of information not just for beekeepers in the island of Ireland but for all beekeepers who keep Amm bees or who…
Is the Dark Bee Really Native to Britain and Ireland?
This article by Dorian Pritchard was originally published in BIM 30 Winter 2008
Tony Maggs “Bee Farming with Native/Near Native Bees”
After pestering a friend of the family for many years, who was an experienced beekeeper in the Nottinghamshire Beekeepers Association, he eventually helped me to start beekeeping by taking me with him to hive a swarm. This mentor turned out to be a keen member of BIBBA, so pointed me…
A Native Dark Bee Project
Margie Ramsay reports on a project reintroducing A.m.m. to a reserve in Scotland. Update July 2015 In 1905, just before the First World War there was a 20 year long bee plague called Isle of Wight disease which was considered by many, including bee breeder Brother Adam, to have eradicated…
BIBBA Monthly – November 2021
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Tim Smit’s View
We are now taking forward our flagship National Bee Improvement Programme (NatBIP) into its next phase and, as part of this, we need promote our message about native honey bees and bee improvement to a much wider audience. We are therefore very pleased that Sir Tim Smit (from the Eden Project) offered to help us promote that message through this short video.
Adam Tofilski Webinars
Adam Tofilski is Professor at the University of Agriculture in Krakow
- view webinar details:
- How to protect native honey bees
- Morphometric identification of honey bee subspecies