Also bonus points to the BBC for breaking with tradition and using a solitary bee (Colletes?) instead of a bumble bee as the thumbnail for a honey bee story...

BIBBA's aim to encourage local bees and teach about breeding and selection is worthwhile - even if the ideal of a return to a native population is a complicated one! But it's hard to not be emotive and avoid confrontation on this one - beekeepers will take any opportunity to disagree! 😂

This is definitely an area which hobbyists can lead in. Most don't 'need' to use imports/Buckfast, and would benefit the most if the average quality of bees in their locality improved. Simple steps like not propping up poor
colonies and not breeding from them can make a big difference.

Many countries have (or are trying to achieve) standardised stocks - be it a local strain (e.g. Slovenia) or by selecting from existing hybrids (e.g. NZ). There an argument that the UK should do the same with local bees, rather than regularly importing but never solving the underlying problem.

The Devon study highlighted a big issue with UK mongrels - we don't have a 'standard' hybrid, and our bees range from near-native to almost no native genetics. As such breeding is a roll of the dice, and each new generation can see big behavioural changes which makes for challenging beekeeping!

Hi Natasha, we'd be honoured if you'd consider including us on this excellent list!

If it's useful the sky follower bridge now also works on Firefox and Edge browsers: www.sky-follower-bridge.dev

Also apparently used to calm the bees when smoking beehives - not tried it though!

A very smug looking male Heather Colletes bee who's obviously been reading the insect Kama Sutra!