Personalities

Brother Adam

The Buckfast bee from Brother Adam.

The origin of the Buckfast bee is a cross from before 1920 between the dark, leather-brown Ligustica and the former English form of the Mellifera. Brother Adam selected his bee strain for performance, fertility, disease resistance and winter hardiness. A very important statement by Br. Adam makes the background to his breeding efforts clear: “The perfect honey bee does not exist. It must be “created” by the hand of man”. He was never “finished” with his breeding efforts. His breeding was based on the realization that all “breeds” of the European honey bee are related to each other and can be traced back to an original form. In other words, a similar phylogeny to that of humans and other mammals. He therefore often had nothing but a smile for reservations about his “different breed of bee”.

However, the further development of the Buckfast strain did not end with the death of Brother Adam. Currently, well-known breeders around the world are working very successfully in a more private sector to preserve and further develop this breed.

The Buckfast bee continues to enjoy increasing popularity worldwide, especially among professional and commercial beekeepers. The Buckfast bee is very gentle, fertile and easy to control in the swarming instinct. It builds strong colonies, produces very good honey yields and is quicker and easier to work with than other breeds.

Günther Ries

The Kassler Beekeepers' Association

The management style was previously more authoritarian; with Günther Ries, things are now a little more relaxed, more companionable, but still very determined in the matter. For example, queen breeding has been significantly improved in practice. The previously reluctant acceptance of re-larvae became commonplace. Buckfast and Carnica material was and still is available as an option, and not only on certain re-larv days. Even if the 1st chairman is a convinced Buckfast beekeeper, breeding issues are treated neutrally in the association, certainly not polemically, and both breeding directions get along well here. Günter Ries, who is a teacher, is naturally particularly interested in promoting and training young people. For years, he has been patiently running courses at the adult education center and giving practical instruction to beginners at his stand.

Anyone who has taken part in them will be happy to confirm that the many well-organized trips to Germany and abroad were and are a pleasant and professional enrichment. As honey has been flowing much more strongly in recent years (not only in 1989), the Board has repeatedly raised questions about the proper extraction, storage and marketing of honey. The 1990 Beekeepers' Day is intended to draw particular attention to this topic.

It should also be noted that we have been in contact with beekeeping friends in the GDR for years and have made many trips back and forth. The already mentioned relaxed and comradely way of dealing with each other means that some problems are solved more easily with a bit of humor and joy.

Certainly, the 1st chairman determines the guidelines of the association's policy, but without the special, loyal and reliable employees, treasurers, secretaries, disease and document station attendants and many without titles, who have always selflessly made themselves available to the association, hardly any idea could have been realized.

(according to H. Menger, Festschrift 21. Hessischer Imkertag Kreisimkerverein Kassel 1865-1990 125th anniversary)

The history of the Kassel Beekeepers' Association from 1947 to 1990

Vortrag Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Randolf Menzel Züchtertagung

When animals and humans learn, the connections of the nerve cells in the brain change and thus store a memory. This serves to better control behavior in the future. The difficulty in locating the memory in the network of many thousands of neurons lies in the fact that the neurons involved in learning cannot be observed directly during memory formation. It is therefore advantageous to study a relatively simple nervous system that is nevertheless able to learn quickly and form a stable long-term memory. We are investigating this question in honeybees. Bees learn landmarks to safely navigate the terrain, they associate the scents, colors, shapes and location of nectar and pollen producing flowers; they learn from each other when they use the waggle dance to inform themselves about the direction and distance to productive food sources or a new nest site. Their learning behavior is extraordinarily rich. They generalize to common design features of visual patterns (e.g. their symmetry or non-symmetry), and they base their learned decision on previously perceived cues or the situation in which they find themselves.

What is particularly significant for us as neuroscientists is that bees also learn under conditions in which visual and electrical registrations can be made in their brains. In such a situation, a scent is used as a cue for a sugar reward, and the animal learns to expect the reward after the stimulus, as in Pavlov's dog. In this way, it is possible to track down the sites of memory formation and measure the changes in the neuronal circuitry. For example, we find that a scent learned as meaningful has a more precise and stronger neuronal representation in the brain. This memory trace can also be followed down to individual, identified neurons and the interconnection pattern of neurons. This opens up the possibility of tracking down the switching elements that lay down the memory trace in the bee brain in their adaptable pattern.

A special feature of memory is its dynamic nature, a characteristic that the bee's memory shares with that of many animals and humans. The learning process is followed by a sensitive short-term memory phase in which the memory can be easily changed and disturbed. This is followed by a medium-term memory that controls behavior for a few hours after learning, and later the stable long-term memory, which in bees is interestingly divided into an early (1 - 2 days) and a late (longer than 2 days) memory. We found that these memory phases are linked to certain reaction sequences of signaling molecules in the neurons involved. Key functions are assumed by certain enzymes (protein kinases), whose activation first leads to the functional modification of existing molecules and then later to the synthesis of new proteins and thus probably new structures. The cellular reaction pathways that become effective in this process are by no means of a special kind; on the contrary, they occur in practically all body cells. They are also not specific to the honeybee, but are found in the cellular mechanisms of the memory trace in other animals, from snails to humans.

The memory content is therefore not stored in any particular molecules, but is laid down in the pattern of changes in the connections of the neurons caused by these general molecules. This principle of memory storage also applies to humans, so the bee brain can be used as a model system for studying general mechanisms of memory formation. If we look at the temporal dynamics of memory traces, we find large differences in different animals. Obviously, these dynamics are linked to the behavioral conditions under which memory is used. For bees, we can now show that the foraging cycle of food is closely linked to the temporal dynamics of the memories used.

If you missed Prof. Menzel's lecture at the breeders' conference in Neuenstein-Aua, you can watch the video here.

It was at a different event, but the content is largely identical. If you missed it, be sure to watch it!

Text & Portrait photo: © 2004 FU Berlin, Biology/Chemistry/Pharmacy Department, Neurobiology Unit, Königin-Luise-Str. 28-30, 14195 Berlin

Where to start? After all, I've had bees for almost 40 years and have been dedicated to the Buckfast bee since 1987. Why? Because during my first years as a beekeeper I had painful experiences with the country bee I kept. Even before our national association was founded, I was always ready to stand up for this fantastic bee. And ... Believe me: 30 years ago it was not so easy to openly stand up for the Buckfast bee. Labels such as “genetic polluter” or overturned hives were the order of the day.

I was also passionate about moving bees. From the Erzgebirge mountains to the Black Forest - everything was searched for lice, which promised a rich forest honey harvest. Once we were even in the Bild newspaper: “Bavarian bees steal Saxony honey!”

20 years ago, the founding of a separate Bavarian Buckfast association was on the agenda. After a night of drinking in Donaueschingen at the Professional and Commercial Beekeepers' Day, I was chosen as chairman. Wolfgang Brachem was also true to his word after that night and became 2nd chairman. When I look back, it's hard to believe: 24 members became an association that now has almost 1200 members. I have gone my own way with my bees for the last 20 years. Away from treating against varroosis, towards a varroa-resistant bee. The most important thing for me has always been: it must not only work for my beekeeping without treatment, it must also be possible for others to get through the bee year without the use of medication. A milestone for me towards this goal: a meeting in Arberg in 2015. Since then, our breeding coordinator has been tirelessly organizing efforts to establish bees with Varroa resistance properties in Bavaria. Drone colonies associated with Varroa resistance are now available to all beekeepers at our Bavarian apiaries.

I am proud of the fact that we as the board have always been able to manage such a fast-growing association in a balanced way. It was and is not always easy to bring all beekeepers under one roof. You know the saying: “Two beekeepers - four different opinions!”

Paul Jungels, born in 1957, a professional beekeeper in Luxembourg, has been beekeeping since 1968. His personal relationship with Brother Adam has significantly shaped his inner relationship with bees. 45 years of experience with the Buckfast bee make him an exceptional professional. He has been a Varroa resistance breeder from the very beginning and achieves outstanding results.

Source: https://unitedbees.com/