Buckfast bee

According to Brother Adam's personal notes, 1915 was "The last season colonies of the former native honeybee (the British strain of A. m. mellifera) existed in this neighbourhood before its final extermination by the Isle of Wight epidemic, in 1916 only bees of or descended from the Italian Ligurian strain of the A. m. ligustica had survived.

[6] Its developer Brother Adam was inspired by the survival of the Italian (A. m. ligustica) × dark bee (A. m. mellifera) crosses when the Isle of Wight disease, later identified as Acarine, reached Buckfast Abbey.

[7] Brother Adam investigated various honey bee subspecies and made many long journeys in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, searching for desirable characteristics within local strains, he also had queens imported to include in his breeding program.

The qualities and characteristics desired in the Buckfast bee breeding can be divided into three groups: primary, secondary and tertiary.

[9] These are the basic qualities of economic importance and form the primary aim in breeding: These are of great importance as each contributes its respective share to an intensification of the honey gathering ability of the colony: These qualities help to reduce to a minimum the time and effort involved in the seasonal care and attention demanded to ensure maximum production results per colony: Brother Adam, in comparing the Buckfast bee to the A. m. ligustica, (which the Buckfast bee is directly descended from and most closely related to[14]) observed that it was more industrious, more thrifty, less disposed to swarm and more resistant to disease especially Acarine (tracheal mites).

Compared to most subspecies of bees the Buckfast bee collects less propolis, keeps restful in winter, but builds up rapidly at the appropriate time in spring time (in England / northern Europe) and maintains a maximum effective colony strength throughout the summer, enabling full advantage of the honey flow to be taken whenever it sets in.

However, not all crosses will produce desirable qualities according to Brother Adam, often the swarming tendency is increased so much that it affects the honey yield.

[18] In a study conducted by Oddie, Dahle and Neumann a Norwegian originally buckfast strain was discovered to be varroa resistant.

[21] In 2018 it was announced that varroa resistant Buckfast bees (daughters of VSH open mated Queens) would be made available for sale in 2019.