Re-activation of the Dartmoor mating station

[Admin]

RE-ACTIVATION OF BROTHER ADAM’S MATING STATION ON DARTMOOR

The summer of 2012 will see the re-activation of Brother Adam’s isolated mating station on Dartmoor. After something over 80 years, Buckfast Abbey had decided to cease using the mating station. The Dartmoor mating station played an important part in the development of the Buckfast bee, its isolation and distance from other apiaries being critical. It would have been a terrible shame to allow this site to remain out of use, and for no Buckfast bees to be bred in the United Kingdom, which is their country of origin. The heritage left to beekeepers by Brother Adam and the work started by him must be continued.
So, permission and access was sought from the farmer of the land where the mating station is located to re-activate the famous mating station for the original use. In addition to this, the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey has graciously permitted the use of the Buckfast name for our queen bees, bred according to the selection methods and breeding tools taught to us by Brother Adam.
In September 2011 Peter Little visited the mating station, finding it was becoming rundown and overgrown. Many of Brother Adam’s hives had been left on site, some of them having intact combs unused for some time. These will remain in the mating station, although Peter plans to use different designs.
Here are a few photographs taken during that visit. (The full announcement can be viewed in the attached file).

The re-activation of the Dartmoor mating station and the re-commencement of serious breeding of the Buckfast bee in the United Kingdom is a project that began under the initiative of Roger White (Cyprus) and Peter Little (UK). In addition to the Dartmoor station, two other mating stations will also be set-up at remote locations on Exmoor. The management of the breeding program will be under the direction of Roger White, whilst the actual day to day management of the mating stations and supervision of the breeding stock in the UK will be under the direction of Peter Little of Somerset.
As the production of the queens will involve a marriage between the existing Buckfast programs and the Cyprus based Superbee breeding program, it has been decided to use the name “Buckfast Superbee queen bees” to best describe the queens produced. Permission to use the name has been sort from and given by the holders of the ‘’Buckfast Superbee” name.
The main aim of this co-operation is the breeding of a present day Buckfast type bee and the production of these queens for our own use and so that they will be available to UK and beekeepers in other European countries who wish to carry out their beekeeping with this type of bee. Emphasis is on a docile, highly productive bee with a low swarming index. Future selection will be to increase the resistance to Varroa destructor and to increase the hygienic behavior in general.
The project will be supported by the Buckfast breeding programs of Roger White’s Superbee based in Cyprus and Crete, Greece using present instrumental insemination, isolated and island mating stations and Peter Little’s breeding program in Somerset supported by instrumental insemination and isolated natural matings.
The first batch of queens will be available around the end of June 2012.
Further information may be obtained from: http://www.superbee-cy.com/ or http://www.exmoorbeesandbeehives.co.uk/
A Buckfast beekeepers group for English speaking Buckfast beekeepers has been formed and their website is: http://www.buckfastbeekeepersgroup.co.uk/ membership is free and open to all.

Attachments

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[Mynahbird]

An exciting development indeed!
All the best with the project, I look forward to following your progress in the coming months. Please keep us updated.

Best wishes,
Anthony Lee (Denmark)

Ps I work breeding Danish Buckfast bees (a programme that began years ago with breeding material donated by Brother Adam) and I was amazed to see the photos from Dartmoor - that the mating hives were still there, some apparently still in pretty good condition, and appearing just as I had read about them and seen photos in Brother Adam's books.

[kevh]

Congratulations to both of you, a lot of hard work must have been done to get it all organised, if it works as well as it did for Brother Adam then the Buckfast is truly back in the UK.
Kev

[fiftyjon]

Excellent news,
I hope it works as well as it did with Brother Adam. A good deal of effort put in by both, Roger and Peter so I hope it pays off.
Looking forward to seeing some of the results in due course.

Jonathan

[Dano41]

This is wonderful news kudos to you both for commitment and effort that was required.2012 will mark the year that beekeeping on these islands changes for the good.

[chrisfnvs]

Best news i have heard for a long time, it is what the UK has been waiting years for, maybe now we can get a decent breeding program for the whole country! well done Roger & Peter i wish you all success with your new venture, if you ever need a extra pair of hands to help out on the odd occasion i would love to come and help. Chris

[Paulo]

Good afternoon,
Wonderful initiative!
Congratulations ...
hugs

[andycadman]

I thoroughly agree with all that has been said above and very much look forward to the future success of the project.

[Soap11]

Hello Admin
Congratulation with the initiative. About time in UK
Do you plan to make the mating place public, or will you keep it private- commercial ?
Are you revealing pedigree and connecting to Van Dyck' homepage ?
Good luck with the project
Carsten

[Admin]

Hello Carsten and all who have posted above,
Thank you for your kind comments.

Yes it will be accessible to any Buckfast beekeeper in good standing with the project and subject of course to certain conditions as is normal with other mating stations. Exact details of the material used at the station will be published here on the form. In April we will details of the drone line we will use this year at the Dartmoor station. If Jean-Marie wants to include it on his website he is welcome to.
best regards
Roger.

[AdamD]

How exciting!

It's a real shame that the site, hives etc have been unused for some time so it's great news that the site that gave birth to the Buckfast bee is going to be used again.

best wishes

Adam

[MikeA]

Fantastic News

Pete - Roger
Would either of you have any objections if I converted the released document into a pdf and sent it via my association secretary to be sent out to all our members?

Mike

(PM sent by Admin)

[Sugarbush]

So when will apiary tours start? I don't know when I will make a trip to the UK, but meeting Pete L and visiting the Apiary would be tops on my list of things to do and see

I will be working with some Buckfast descendant stock from Ferguson Apiaries in Canada this season, they are due to arrive in June.

[JELeal]

Hello Friends,

I'm very empolgade and expectant. It's great to know that, fortunately, the excellent work of Brother Adam always going to make to see the light of day.
I love working with the bees that he developed, however, in Portugal is very difficult to have a good acceptance by other beekeepers.

I discovered by chance your meeting point. I will be grateful for your help and welcome.
I am happy to share with you, as you body will have to share with me.

Regards,
João Leal

[Admin]

Hello Joao,
Welcome!
There is another Buckfast beekeeper from Portugal on this forum - "Paolo". It would good if you two could find some other beekeepers and form your own group of Buckfast beekeepers in Portugal, we can have an exchange of ideas and information between you and other groups.