History of the displacement of the European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) in Denmark

Abstract

The European dark honey bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) is today a rare subspecies across the former range of northern Europe where it has largely been replaced by hybrid bees such as the popular “Buckfast,” involving, but not limited to, the Italian subspecies (Apis mellifera ligustica). Here, we report the presence of native dark bees in advertisements since the later half of the 19th century and document that the replacement was efficient and fast, but also that the native A. m. mellifera was not completely abandoned in apiculture. There was consistent commercialization across years among beekeepers interested in conserving the native subspecies.

Keywords:

• introgression
• bee conservation
• apiculture

Acknowledgement

We are grateful for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript from Per Kryger, Henning Bang Madsen and two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by 15. Juni Fonden.