The audio version of this post is on my podcast page and YouTube.

An email from my local beekeeping association arrived last week. It was a good email, which should have filled me with hope and joy because it was encouraging beekeepers to enrol in a queen rearing class. Isn’t that one of the best things you can do with your time? Raising queens is fantastic; it’s good fun, fascinating, challenging at times, and can lead to a remarkable improvement in your bees. And yet, I was vexed. Certain claims were made which took away the joy. I am probably atypical – a weirdo without a clue – but I must unburden myself of this angst. Perhaps writing this article will expunge my demons. Anyway, the section of the email that caused a ripple in my sea of tranquility was as follows:

“All National BKAs [beekeeping associations] have concerns to discourage the importation of bees and queens.  Possible risks include: 

• The introduction of pests (e.g. Small Hive Beetle and Tropilaelaps – both notifiable), diseases, and pathogens.
• Aggression in subsequent generations.
• Unsuitability to our fickle climate, along with higher-than-expected winter losses.
• Genetic contamination of both managed and free-living honeybee populations.

This is a one-day course to help and encourage everyone from the small-scale beekeeper upwards to produce bees and queens from locally adapted stock, using simple techniques at little or no cost. 

This BIBBA course is aimed at beekeepers of all abilities, from beginners to the most experienced, as well as BKA officials, beekeeping teachers, apiary managers, etc. The course will typically run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.”

A Minor Quibble

I can get the easy one out of the way first. A six-hour course aimed at beekeepers of all abilities will, inevitably, be much more useful for beginners than “the most experienced.” It seems likely that this course is mostly about convincing beekeepers who have not tried to raise queens to give it a go. I’m not sure what else you could realistically achieve in six hours, including a lunch break, but that is still great. I cannot imagine the most experienced queen producers getting much out of this, apart from possibly finding new outlets for their queens.

Some Bee History

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are believed to have first arrived in the UK naturally after the last Ice Age, around 9,000–10,000 years ago, as the climate began to warm and forests spread across the landscape. Here’s a breakdown of the timeline and conditions during their early arrival:

Arrival of honey bees in the UK

Period: Post-Ice Age, around 8,000–9,000 BCE (Holocene Epoch).

Means of Arrival: Honey bees likely spread northward from Europe as the glaciers receded, following the retreat of the ice sheets and the expansion of temperate deciduous forests, which provided abundant flowering plants for forage.

Environmental Conditions at the Time

The climate was becoming warmer and wetter after the harsh cold of the Ice Age.

This period, known as the Holocene Climatic Optimum, was characterised by mild winters and warm summers, conducive to the survival of honey bees.

Large tracts of temperate deciduous forests (oak, elm, lime, and hazel) dominated the landscape. Flowering plants, shrubs, and wildflowers provided abundant nectar and pollen sources for honey bees.

A diverse range of animals coexisted with early honey bees, including deer, wild boar, wolves, and birds. There were no significant introduced predators or pests affecting honey bees at this time.

The human population in Britain during this period consisted of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who may have opportunistically harvested wild honey from tree cavities or rock crevices. There is no evidence of managed beekeeping during this era.

Bee Imports to England

1. Roman Era (43–410 CE)

The Romans are believed to have introduced systematic beekeeping techniques to England, possibly bringing bees with them to supplement local populations. Honey and beeswax were important commodities for food, medicine, and religious purposes. Bees likely came from the Mediterranean region, including Italy and Greece, where advanced beekeeping practices already existed.

I find it hard to believe that the indigenous population had not figured out some form of beekeeping at this time, but it’s not important. This section is from internet searches that may have small errors or be incomplete; the point is to show that importing bees has gone on for a very long time.

2. Late Medieval Period (14th–16th Centuries)

As agriculture expanded, the demand for pollinators increased. Imports likely supplemented local bee populations. Neighbouring countries such as France or the Low Countries (modern-day Belgium and the Netherlands) were the source.

3. Victorian Era (19th Century)

Interest in scientific beekeeping grew during the 19th century, with a focus on improving productivity and hive management. Enthusiasm for foreign bee subspecies with desirable traits (e.g., gentleness, high honey yield) led to imports. Italian bees (Apis mellifera ligustica) were favoured for their productivity and docility. Carniolan bees (Apis mellifera carnica) were imported for their overwintering ability and calm temperament. Cyprus bees were imported for their vigour but eventually fell out of favour due to their defensive nature.

4. Early 20th Century (1900–1930s)

The devastating Isle of Wight Disease (IoWD) decimated native black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) populations across much of England, especially further south. Beekeepers sought to replace lost colonies with disease-resistant and productive subspecies. Italian bees continued to be a popular choice due to their resilience and productivity. Carniolan bees and others from central and Eastern Europe were also brought in.

5. Post-World War II Era (1945–1960s)

Efforts to improve agricultural productivity during post-war recovery increased demand for efficient pollinators. There was an expansion of large-scale commercial beekeeping operations. Again, Italian bees were a popular import. Furthermore, the Buckfast bee was gaining popularity; a hybrid combining genetic material from across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa with the local black bees.

6. Late 20th Century to Present (1980s–2020s)

Continued losses due to diseases (e.g., Varroa destructor, Nosema, and deformed wing virus) continued the demand for imports. Commercial beekeepers grew accustomed to relatively cheap, good-quality imported bees. During this time, bees came in from New Zealand and Hawaii, Eastern Europe, Denmark, and the Mediterranean. 

Local Bees

As a consequence of a long history of imports, the typical local bee in England is a hybrid bee (mongrel). There are places, such as parts of the far north, where conditions can be very harsh, and the local bees are predominantly of the ‘native’ black type of bee (90% Apis mellifera mellifera). In these areas nature has selected for a bee that can survive in those places. We know that there are pockets of pure native bees, such as those on Colonsay, but this is the exception, not the rule. Such populations are worth preserving, from a conservation perspective. A study looking at the DNA of honey bees across Devon (see image below) showed that on average the bees were 58% Apis mellifera mellifera (North European black bee) and 42% of the C-lineage (Southern Europe).

Our bees are mongrels, whatever they may look like to the casual observer. There is zero chance of this changing, but some people struggle to accept this fact. For many bee farmers, who probably manage about a third of all honey bees in the country, their source of queens tends to involve breeding stock and/or queens for production colonies that come from abroad. The reason is simple; they are good bees that do very well in this country. If you rely on bees for a living, you don’t use queens that can’t cope with our conditions. If you did that, you would soon go bust. 

Many people refer to the large study “The influence of genetic origin and its interaction with environmental effects on the survival of Apis mellifera L. colonies in Europe” by Buchler et al. to show that “local bees are best”. However, that study seemed to be measuring how long bees can survive without varroa treatments, and the locals did better than the others. I can point to many commercial beekeepers using imported bees (or at least queens from imported mothers) that follow a proper varroa treatment protocol, and their losses are consistently way lower than those reported nationally. 

Not that it’s statistically significant, but last season I compared four colonies headed by queens from Ivan Nielsen with my own. With the same management, the imported Danish bees made nearly twice as much honey, much to my annoyance. However, one of them did die early this winter. 

Buying Queens

When you buy queens from the major producers in the UK, there’s nearly always a large chunk of imported genetics in your purchase. Early season queens come from Southern Europe. Many British-bred queens are made using imported breeder queens. Their daughters are generally mated with local drones, but many queen producers will populate the area with drones from colonies also headed by imported queens. Many of these queens are excellent, but they are not native bees – far from it.

If the logic of dissuading people from buying queens is to reduce imported genetics, then that won’t work in most places. Given that the local bees are already mongrels, combining genetics from the UK with material from across Europe, that ship has sailed. 

And, you know what? That’s absolutely fine. I’m not keeping bees to try to recreate something from the past. I’m trying to keep healthy bees that make plenty of honey. That is perfectly possible with both UK (mostly mongrel) bees and imported bees. In fact, the chances are that bees imported from long-standing and respected breeding programmes in Europe are much ‘purer’, genetically, than our bees.

Back to the email

So, I hope I have illustrated the folly of two points made in the afore-mentioned email about a queen rearing course. The idea that all imported bees are unsuitable to our fickle climate is absurd. Perhaps that may apply to Greek or Italian bees in Northumberland, if conditions get particularly bad, but there is far too much evidence to the contrary. The current popularity of “Danish Buckfast” bees is entirely due to their perfect suitability to conditions here in England. Losses of consistently less than 10%, bumper honey crops, low swarming, gentle, good disease resistance – these are not bad bees. 

What about “genetic contamination”? Well, that happened a long time ago, and it will continue. In particular, after the Isle of Wight disease in the early 20th century, beekeepers in England were hugely grateful for the bees that came in to replenish their often catastrophic losses. 

Isle of Wight Disease (IOWD)

It is frequently forgotten just how bad the losses were in the first quarter of the 20th century. Acarine may have been involved, although viruses and climatic stress probably combined to create a set of circumstances that wiped many bees out, like the so-called colony collapse disorder (CCD) of modern times. The black bees seemed particularly vulnerable to IOWD, and thousands of colonies died.

Imported bees, and crosses between Italians and the locals, had resistance to whatever IOWD was. The rapid spread of the disease, combined with one particular type of bee suffering more than others, suggests to me that it was probably imported bees which brought in the sickness. The bees on the continent had most likely been exposed to different pathogens than the majority of bees in England at the time, and developed resistance. 

The “introduction of pests, diseases, and pathogens” is very definitely a strong argument against importing bees. That’s how varroa mites got here. It will probably be how Tropilaelaps gets here too, one day. So, I am not waving the flag for imports. I just think that the arguments against imports should be honest and accurate. The pest/pathogen argument is solid, whereas the “fickle climate” and “genetic contamination” tropes are weak, to say the least.

Aggression in subsequent generations

I hear this one over and over, but it is not, to my knowledge, backed by scientific evidence. For a start, defensiveness is not just genetically determined; the environment plays its part. My understanding is that careful selective breeding for gentleness leads to more gentle bees, regardless of the type of bee. Sure, sometimes crossing bees of different origins causes horrible bees. But sometimes it doesn’t. It is the genes responsible for defensiveness that count, combined with the environment, not so much the type of bee. There are gentle black bees and gentle hybrids. There are nasty examples of both, too. 

From my experience, the average local bee in my area is quite dark, a little ‘runny’ on the comb, and highly prone to swarming. They tend to be a bit more feisty than the queens that I raise using selected stock. If I let bees re-queen themselves through supersedure or swarming, they generally deteriorate with each subsequent generation. To me, this is a reversion to the typical local bee. Now and then I get some really unpleasant bees, and I have to re-queen them with something better. This is just the interaction between my selected good queens and whatever drones they mate with. Sometimes you get a winner, sometimes it goes wrong. 

My queens

Incidentally, I mostly use UK breeder queens, not imports. They are hybrids, and they do pretty well. But I have used imports. I also like to use inseminated or island-mated breeder queens, which are “pure bred” or nearly so, but their daughters mate with my local drones. My preference is for UK bees, and especially UK bees made by me. This is mostly because, apart from special cases like those Nielsen queens, I can make queens that are as good, or better than, the ones I can buy. I also do want to avoid the risks of bringing in pathogens or pests from abroad. 

So, ultimately, I agree with most of the goals of BIBBA. I would rather make queens than buy them, and I do think there are some risks with importing bees, especially from far-off places with different climates and, most likely, different diseases. However, the obsession with one type of bee (the native black bee), and the ideas of genetic contamination, aggression in subsequent generations, and unsuitability to our climate, are a bit silly. Unless, of course, you happen to be right next to a conservation area for one type of bee. In that case, it’s worth using stock from within that area. Select breeder queens with good traits – the colour doesn’t matter!