Buckfast bee

The Buckfast bee is not a natural subspecies but a bred line of honey bee, developed by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. According to the Federation of European Buckfast Beekeepers (GDEB), the original cross was made before 1920: a dark, leathery-brown Ligustica line with an older English form of mellifera.

The breeding aims, according to GDEB, were performance, fertility, disease resistance and winter hardiness.

According to NC State the bees are medium in colour and moderately defensive, but if left unmanaged for one or two generations they can become among the most aggressive stocks. Swarming tendency is low and spring build-up moderate, which limits use of early nectar flows; they overwinter well, being bred for cold, wet British conditions.

Why this matters to you. The name Buckfast belongs above all to a queen with a pedigree: GDEB keeps a Pedigree Breeding Register and notes that the word is often misunderstood. A 2024 Swedish study calls such hybrids Apis mellifera x, bees that have outcompeted local dark-bee populations, so it is worth asking about pedigree rather than relying on the name alone.