Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey

si vous préférez, traduisez ici!	[ Return to the Biblio ] [ Original auf Deutsch ] [ Traduction française ]	Article by Brother Adam, O. S. B., (1898 - 1996) © Erik Österlund picture St. Mary’s Abbey, Buckfast, Devon, England. English adaptation from the German by G.F. Lengvari.
Extract from The Bee World, 31(12), 1950, p 89-91 Translation from the Schweizerische Bienenzeitung, 73(2), 1950, 66-74.

It is not an easy task to make a report on beekeeping as it is pursued at Buckfast Abbey in South Devon.   Quite a few of our methods are not in line with principles generally accepted, or more correctly, they offend against rules acknowledged by most authorities on beekeeping — at least in England.   In the course of the last thirty-five years we have established, and then adhered to, certain principles which are scientifically sound and also essential for good honey production — and the honey harvest is the ultimate aim in beekeeping.   There are also certain factors which, although significant, we consider to be of secondary importance; these include the type of district, the climate, and whether the bees are kept for a hobby or on a commercial basis.   In this short article, we shall deal with these secondary factors first, inasmuch as they are characteristic of the methods used in Buckfast; after this we shall give a description of our special methods of queen rearing, which we regard as the essential principle upon which our success rests.

Type of district.

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).   This situation, and the influence of the Gulf Stream, determine the climate; here we have neither the severe winters of the Continent nor their long, continuously hot summers.   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, but on the other hand the close proximity of Dartmoor offers the advantage of a second honey flow in August, just after the main flow from clover in June and July.   Sources of nectar of secondary importance are: willow, blackthorn, hawthorn, sycamore, blackberry and fruit.   Among the fruits, apple blossom is of real importance; we have no cherries, pears, etc.

Hives.

The structure of our hives and equipment is in line with these circumstances.   The Buckfast Abbey hive is similar to the Modified Dadant, but accommodates twelve frames instead of eleven.   The honey supers are half as deep as the brood boxes, i.e. 15.2 cm (6 in.), and a full super contains about 25 kg (55 lb.) of honey.   We have also made several important changes in the design of our hives and equipment to facilitate rapid and comfortable operation, and to simplify transport to the moors.

Honey production.

At present we have 320 colonies for honey production.   They are distributed in ten out-apiaries of 30-40 colonies each.   The out-apiaries are from 7-20 km (4-12 miles) from Buckfast.   We do not have our hives in rows according to the general practice in England and America, but in groups of four.   The entrances of the four hives in each group face outwards and in different directions (north, east, south and west) in order to minimise drifting.

Our management is intensive rather than extensive, and our goal is a high annual average honey production from each colony.   We have so simplified all our equipment and methods that a minimum of time and labour is required, since everything unnecessary has been avoided.   On the other hand the aesthetic aspect of apiculture is by no means neglected.

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.   We claim Buckfast as the holder of a record achievement in honey production not only in Great Britain but probably in the whole of Europe, namely the greatest honey inflow over a five-day period.   This was recorded when one colony, in an out-apiary of thirty-nine, produced a net increase of 65 kg (143 lb.) in weight; this is equivalent to 13 kg (29 lb.) a day.   Another eight colonies did only slightly less well.   However, it is not the records of individual colonies that count, but the high average production from the entire apiary over many years.

Honey and wax extraction.

Our harvesting equipment was designed to tackle big honey crops with ease in the shortest possible time, and the extracting equipment is entirely power driven.   The uncapping machine has a steam-heated knife which moves horizontally.   The cappings fall on to copper steam coils in a container; these promptly melt the wax which then separates from the honey.   As honey falls on to the coils at a considerable rate, there is no danger of its being spoilt by overheating.   There is only a momentary contact of the honey with the coil, and an outlet provides for the drainage of the container, leading the honey into the extractor by means of a pipeline.   The wax, which has a lower specific gravity, floats on the top of the honey and is run into moulds automatically.

We have a radial type of extractor taking 44 shallow frames, which extracts approximately 100 kg (2 cwt.) of honey in ten minutes.   In earlier years we had found the pressing of heather honey a very troublesome job, but by means of a hydraulic press of special construction we have overcome the difficulties involved.   Experiments have shown the need of a pressure of 200 kg/cm² (1.3 tons/sq. in.) to separate all the honey from the wax.   Our discovery that by the application of heat we could reduce the required pressure down to 100 kg/cm² (0.63 tons/sq. in.) enabled us to build a press which deals with 24 shallow frames in a single operation within seven minutes, and yet is of reasonable dimensions.   Last autumn (1949) we pressed 23 tons of honey within 12 days.   Moreover the press worked so effectively that the loss was as less than 1-2 %; according to our experience of many years an ordinary heather honey press results in 15-20 % loss of honey.

The extracted honey, whether centrifuged or pressed, is pumped into storage tanks.   We have eleven of these, each of 2.5 tons capacity, and each tank is equipped with a steam coil to heat the honey before bottling.   Automatic control of the temperature of the water circulating in the coil has been provided, and this prevents overheating of the honey.   A tank full of granulated clover honey (pure heather honey from Calluna vulgaris does not granulate) is ready to be emptied within 18 hours, without any labour beyond filling up the boiler and the coils with water and lighting the gas.   An automatic bottling machine fills 1600-2000 pound jars an hour.

The problem of equipment depends so much upon the circumstances that it is useless to set up any fixed rules, and for this reason we regard the equipment as a secondary factor.

The rest of this article will be devoted to the problem which in our opinion is of the greatest significance — the problem of queen rearing.

Bee breeding and queen rearing.

The solution of this problem is of major importance to every beekeeper; and it means breeding the best possible queens of the very best strain for every colony.   By means of systematic queen rearing undue swarming can be prevented, a high average honey yield can be secured, and resistance to diseases so strengthened that disease will appear only as an exception.   This statement requires a short explanation.   We do not believe greatly in the various treatments generally recommended for bee diseases, such as the Frow treatment or the use of sulpha drugs.   These may retard the spreading of the disease, but they certainly do not stop it.   In this country, and especially in the vicinity of Buckfast (probably due to its particular climate), acarine disease is prevalent.   However, by means of careful selective breeding throughout a period of twenty years we have overcome the inherent susceptibility to this disease to such an extent that it practically never occurs.   Whenever we introduce bees from any other district they succumb to acarine disease within a year or so.   Our wide experience in the campaign against acarine disease, which goes back to the years when it reached the peak of its virulence, has shown clearly that resistance and susceptibility to this disease are inherited, and moreover that they are inherited through the queen; the drone has no direct influence on this resistance or susceptibility in the first generation.   Whether this is similar with the brood diseases has yet to be proved, but our observations have given ample indication that resistance to them is inherited.   It requires many years of wide experience and exceptional knowledge to breed this quality and at the same time to retain other characteristics of economic importance.   In our opinion the increase of resistance is the only way to attain permanent freedom from bee diseases.

The Buckfast bee is a cross between the native British and the Italian bee; this cross was produced thirty-five years ago, shortly before the native bee was exterminated by acarine disease.   In the meantime no fresh blood has been introduced into the strain, except for experimental purposes.   The harmful effects of inbreeding, which have now been demonstrated in America as a result of artificial insemination, were clear to us twenty years ago.   Continuous inbreeding is possible only when it is practised on a sufficiently large scale; experience has taught us to rely on a number of breeding queens (for the breeding of both queens and drones) in order to eliminate undesirable characteristics, and also to obtain optimal results.   This is the only method by which we can make valid comparisons on which to base our selection of the purest strains and the most productive offspring; it is also the only way by which real progress can be made every year.   For instance last year we bred from six breeding queens; 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.), i.e.  20 kg (44 lb.) above the average of all 320 colonies.   This is not a chance occurrence, as these 22 colonies were distributed among all our ten out-apiaries.   Moreover, the colonies which give this high performance also have all the other good qualities which we have aimed at.

The appearance, gentleness and prolificity of the Buckfast bee are similar to those of the Italian, but the excellent vigour, the longevity and the unique white capping of the native bee have not only been retained but greatly improved.   Other qualities which have been achieved through our breeding are resistance to acarine disease, absence of propolising and of swarming.

Mating apiary.

All this would have been impossible without a queen-mating apiary.   The Swiss beekeepers have given the world a valuable example by their scientific bee breeding and by the introduction of mating stations.   Artificial insemination is of great scientific value, but the use of mating apiaries is still the only means by which we can produce reliable super-quality queens.

We have already mentioned the close vicinity of the wide heather-covered plateau of Dartmoor, and there, after a long search.   about 17 km (10 miles) from the monastery, we discovered an ideal site for our mating apiary in the very midst of the moors, 400 m (1 300 ft) above sea level in a wide valley which is well protected from the prevailing south-westerly winds.   Moreover — and this is the main point — the isolation of the site is excellent.   Within a radius of 10 km (6 miles) there are no colonies of bees from which drones could fly out over the open, wind-swept moors to our mating apiary.   Also, Dartmoor offers the striking advantages of being almost uninhabited and of having no trees whatsoever, and the climate on the moors is so rough that no swarm can survive.   It is there that we set up our mating apiary twenty-six years ago — then the only one in England.

Owing to the particular climatic situation, we had a difficult problem to solve in the design of our mating nucleus hive.   We made numerous experiments to find the type best suited to our purposes.   The first trial was made with half-size British standard frames, in boxes accommodating four nuclei, each of three half-size frames.   These proved to be very good for summer use, but they were too small for overwintering.   In the end, the Dadant half-frame proved to be the only suitable one for our needs; consequently we built our mating boxes to accommodate 16 Dadant half-frames, dividing a box into two (crosswise) to take them.   Another division (lengthwise), by means of moveable division boards, gives four compartments each holding four half-frames.   These mating nuclei can support themselves in a normal summer, and are strong enough to overwinter the fertile queen; on the other hand they are small enough to prevent the breeding of drones.

Our feeders are designed to suit this type of hive, and they depend on the same principles as those used in our honey producing hives.   All the four nuclei have simultaneous access to the syrup.   At present we have 500 mating nuclei, which enable us to overwinter approximately 400 fertile queens in the mating apiary.

Our stock allows us to requeen our colonies every spring with queens which are in the full vigour of their youth.   This, in our opinion, is the secret that makes our colonies develop so successfully, and which also is responsible for the 100 % acceptance of the queens at introduction.