Genetic Priorities for Conservation of Native Honey Bees

Like Dorian, I started beekeeping in the 1970s. I joined BIBBA (which then stood for the British Isles Bee Breeders’ Association) and became a committee member. I was privileged to be asked to compile the book The Honeybees of the British Isles from the articles and papers left by BIBBA’s Director Beowulf Cooper after his untimely death in 1982.

After a scientific training Beowulf had worked for many years as an entomologist for the Government’s Agricultural Advisory Service, as well as being an experienced practical beekeeper. In his book he helped to debunk the commonly held belief, promoted by Brother Adam and others, that the native honeybee Apis mellifera mellifera had been wiped out in the British Isles by the ’Isle of Wight Disease’. He described its genetic characteristics, both morphological, being an early practitioner of wing morphometry, and behavioural, and discussed its management.

Through BIBBA and also SICAMM (the European dark bee association) I became acquainted with Dorian Pritchard, then Lecturer in Human Genetics at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and co-author of the standard work Medical Genetics at a Glance.

I find the present book a worthy successor and complement to Beowulf’s, written like his by a scientist (this time a highly qualified geneticist) and experienced and successful practical beekeeper.

As Dorian shows, since Beowulf’s day the study of honey bee genetics by wing morphometry and DNA analysis has advanced considerably. Meanwhile, many commercial beekeepers and queen breeders, in their quest for ever greater honey production, have taken the uniformity of their bees to even greater lengths, importing bees and/or queens from distant areas, and also routinely treating prophylactically for varroa and other diseases.

At the other extreme, conservationist proponents of ’let-alone’, ’natural’ or ’Darwinian’ beekeeping have also become more evident. Dorian’s genetic expertise and his many years of practical beekeeping enable him to steer a sustainable and yet productive course within this field, with scientific authority. He comes down firmly on the side of keeping only local bees which are adapted to the prevailing climate and environment, while conserving natural variation, and recommends beekeepers ＂to allow all native colonies to reproduce without restraint, allowing nature to make her own choice of survivors.＂ Compatible management techniques can aid this process and still provide a worthwhile honey surplus.