Buckfast

The Buckfast honey bee is a managed strain of Apis mellifera developed at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England, by Brother Adam after severe early twentieth-century colony losses. It was built through planned crosses among several honey bee backgrounds, with Italian ancestry especially influential, and then selected for practical colony behavior rather than a single fixed appearance. Buckfast workers are often golden brown with darker banding, but open-mated queens can produce colonies that vary in color, temperament, and performance.

Beekeepers use Buckfast stock for honey production, pollination, and general apiary work where manageable temperament and steady brood rearing are desired. The strain rewards active management: colonies may grow quickly, need space before nectar flows, and still require ordinary swarm control, Varroa monitoring, and winter preparation. Queens from controlled mating programs are more likely to express the expected traits than bargain open-mated queens with an unknown drone background. In cooler or highly seasonal regions, local testing matters more than the label on the queen cage.

Colors: Golden Brown with Black Stripes