- We have read a lot in recent years about the widespread loss of bees, but today we are going to talk about another harsh reality of beekeeping in the Basque Country: the disappearance of the native black bee. “The black bee is hybridizing with other subspecies of bees from outside and it is increasingly difficult to keep the native. In the Northern Basque Country it can already be considered lost; in the South the exterior breeds are also increasing and the situation is considerably worse in recent years,” explains Egoitz Galartza, member of the Black Bee Breeders Association ERBEL.
In Euskal Herria today we have a kind of deposit of an almost disappeared bee in Europe, a “treasure”, and that is why they also stress that it is essential to react before afternoon and take concrete measures. But what is behind that loss of the native bee and why is it important not to let it disappear? How does the confusion between subspecies occur and why does the black bee lose in this game? We have talked to Egoitz Galartza about all this, and we have collected experiences from two Alavese beekeepers and working with the black bee, but they are complicating the situation.
The black bee, or what we talk about when we say "from here"
The breeds Apis mellifera mellifera and Apis mellifera iberiensis are called native black bees. “In the case of bees, the breeds are separated by geographical barriers: Apis mellifera iberiensis is a subspecies located south of the Pyrenees and throughout Europe north of the Pyrenees the breed is Apis mellifera mellifera,” explains beekeeper Galartza. Although two different races have the same origin, as after the glaciation they spread throughout Europe from the Iberian Peninsula. “The Basque Country is just separated by the Pyrenees, so the north would be A. mellifera mellifera and the south A. mellifera iberiensis”. However, he stresses that both are very similar and that the black bee of Gipuzkoa is closer to Lapurdi than to Andalusia. In short, mountain ranges have historically marked the limits, as bees did not cross them. But what happens today? That bees move in the car, well, it's better to say that we "move them" often, and it's possible that the queen buys over the Internet and picks it up in
a little box in the other part of the world. The globalization of bees has marked a milestone in the evolution and survival of native breeds.
“Sometimes we seem to have a rather Nazi vision claiming the purity of the autochthonous, but in genetics it is like this: the genes of the autochthonous bee are made to the conditions here, they are accustomed to climate and climate changes, they are plants and we know how they will behave during the year,” says Galartza. Beekeeper underscores local adaptation and genetic diversity when talking about the importance of black bee. Because of its diversity, there is everything among the genes of its population, which gives it the ability to adapt. In other words, in those times when changes predominate, bees will always be able to adapt to the new situation and survive in this population.
Genetic diversity is linked to this. “It seems that mixing your bee with foreign breeds will enrich genetically, right? No, it’s just the opposite, because the genes from the outside replace those from the native bee, move and come into play genes of reduced origin and cause a loss of diversity.” Foreign subspecies bring genes that were not here before, but instead of winning in diversity, you lose.
Characteristics of the black bee
Physically, as the name suggests, the whole skin is black (so it is easy to distinguish it from bees hybridized to vacuum and other subspecies). It is a little selected and behavioral beehive and well adapted to the environment, very fond of beekeeping [see in the table "The Small Dictionary to Understand Bees" what it is to throw a beekeeper]. Although it is not entirely aggressive, it has its character, beekeepers must be well protected.
Use of external breeds or programmed bees obsolescence
According to Galartza, more and more people reach the world of beekeeping via the Internet, rather than belonging to associations of local beekeepers. Many of them rely on hybrid external breeds rather than native breeds: “These hybrids are working very well: they are good bees, slow and docile, productive, they don’t release hives [see what is a small dictionary to understand bees]… is having a lot of success, especially a hybrid commercial called Buckfast.” The Italian linguistic Apis mellifera and the Carnica Apis mellifera of the Balkans have also been incorporated.
However, these hybrid commercials have behind them a trapdoor. “These hybrids are of particular interest to those who sell queen. Why? You buy a hybrid that works well, but when that gets confused with the bees of the native breed it loses those good characteristics, it gets worse. And what do you do? Well, buy back.” That is, that these Buckfast always require a return… will it be a programmed beekeeping obsolescence? The question is what happens with commercial hybrid seeds in agriculture.
A. m. iberiensis. The continuous black line indicates the distribution between the Iberian subspecies and subspecies A. m. mellifera (north of the Pyrenees) and A. m. intermissa (north of Africa). Discontinuous black lines indicate the populations of the Iberian subspecies. Haplotypic frequency gradient of the
M (blue) and
A (red) lineages on map A, from north to south, from mitochondrial
DNA studies. The diagonal arrow indicates the gradient sense. The red arrow represents the man-made population from North Africa. Populations of
A. m. iberiensis found on map
B in the Iberian Peninsula from DNA studies of the nucleus.
Queen's hybridization or interracial flight process
We have learned that after the loss of the native black bee, hybridization with external breeds is taking place. But how does this hybridization process happen? Is it so easy to mix the native bee with foreign subspecies and lose its own characteristics? With Galartza's explanations about the surprising reproduction of bees, we will easily understand that yes: "Hybridization occurs when a queen is confused with the external counterforts [see what is the herlamando in the "To understand bees" box]. The queen is virgin at birth and leaves outside the hive to be covered with claims. These flights are covered with a total of 12-20 mourners, and until he lives, he will take his son forever. It keeps it alive to use as much as it needs.” Awesome, right? It is estimated that it lays around 50,000 eggs a year.
But notice, what does that mean? Well, when the black queen bee is covered during the flight of the dome with an erlamating of the external subspecies, or with two, or with three, etc., the eggs of that mixture will be placed for years, and if you throw a hive every year it will spread. It must also be borne in mind that queen bees can reach far from the hive, two or three kilometres away, and that the buttresses can travel more than five kilometres. There is therefore a great opportunity to bring two colonies located about ten kilometres away. “It’s very easy to confuse the different hives and it needs it, but it becomes a problem when the bees come from abroad,” the beekeeper adds.
In the Northern Basque Country, as mentioned above, and as Mikela Untsain tells us in the attached table, the use of external breeds is widespread, it is impossible to avoid hybridization and work only with the black bee. In Hego Euskal Herria, on the contrary, in Bizkaia the use of the exterior has spread widely, but in Gipuzkoa, Araba and Navarra less. Despite the fact that so far they have had no problem in these three places, more and more hybrid bees have appeared in recent years and beekeepers are concerned. “I have bees in Lizarraldea, and here we see many times that beekeepers come from outside the sun or the rape. They also bring 200 hives that mix with those in here, because there is no control about it.”
Small dictionary to understand bees
Queen bee: only female hive breeding, the only one laying eggs.
Bee: the only ones that don't have buoys. They do not produce honey or waxes, nor do they collect pollen, whose only function is the fertilization of the queen. Once this function is fulfilled, they die.
Aggressiveness of bees: the tendency to puncture the native bee is one of the causes of the use of external breeds, some of them very docile. Beehive abatement: it is the division of the hive, two of a colony, its
natural form of reproduction. In the hive, they make a new queen, and the old queen flees with half-bees. That's what we often see hanging from the air or from the branches. It represents a loss for the beekeeper, since during the processing of honey they throw the hive, completely interrupting the production of honey. Therefore, they seek to minimize this trend with hybridization.
Regulation, the only possibility of survival
And in the face of hybridization, what options does beekeeper who has chosen to work with the native race have? Two options: continue working with hybrid bees of worse characteristics, or reject the hybridized and reintroduce the local queen. Of course, this second option requires expenditure and work, and only those who are particularly sensitive do. However, the interviewed beekeepers see the only solution to prevent the disappearance of the black bee: “It is essential to regulate the use of external breeds, and that is an administrative decision,” says Galartza.
The prohibition of this use is what is demanded from the LEC, since they insist on the need to choose one or the other, since the use of two different races in the same place is incompatible. “They say that we have a free market and that you cannot regulate what you can buy and what you cannot, but if you use that race I cannot use mine… how is my right guaranteed?” she asks. In the case of other animals, there are regulations in force, such as in the case of Aralar, which prohibit the entry into common runs of another ovine breed other than latxa.
“We have said that Apis mellifera mellifera is practically lost in France, in Germany there are no native bees, it is kept in the Russian area, in Ireland there are islands too… but they are making great efforts to recover their bee.” In the south of Euskal Herria, fortunately, we are well before this phase, but the call to take measures not to reach this situation is what the people who work in maintaining the native black bee demand. “The risk is there, and we don’t want to have to look for conservation areas in ten years’ time, launch a recovery program… it’s much better to take action before,” concludes Galartza. In this regard, ERBEL has launched a screening programme to promote the improvement and conservation of the native black bee. “We first test the queens and the colony, measure and value their behavior, and then we reproduce them for the next generation with the best genetically.” The programme is performing well and is pioneering at European level. Only the way can be made, but partnership will not be possible.
GORKA LEGORBURU, ALAVESA MOUNTAIN, has
bees in Birgaragoien, Sabando and Atauri and had hybridization problems for the first time three or four years ago
“In both hives we had problems, but this year we have had five. This has never happened before. They started testing with Italian bees in this area for a long time, but because they didn't resist the harsh winters, the question stuck in that. But now we’ve started to see more and more.” “We take the hives to
a more distant place to fertilize new queens, where we have not yet had hybridization problems. So, in a way, we avoid the problem, but if it gets more and more out, I don’t know what’s going to happen… With the outer races it’s easy: they have banks to buy queens, they always keep the pure race, but in the end it enters that game: buy everything, business.”
MIKELA UNTSAIN, AZKAINE
Beekeeper for 20 years
“At first the black bee was not to sell it to anyone and I started with the Caucasian. When I was three years old, I approached the Association of Beekeepers of Gipuzkoa and through them I found out that they were working on the identification of the native black bee, on the development of a kind of conservatory, and so I started to recover the native bee here in Iparralde.” He says that there is still some conservatory in these areas, but the main problem is that the queen's breeders do not select the black bee, so they have to go to the South or to Spain to get them. “In recent years the number of beekeepers in Iparralde as professionals has
been increasing, targeting other breeds, so there are serious hybridization problems. I believe that the use of external breeds is closely related to professionalisation. At first, I was trying to work with the black bee alone, but now, if I'm hybridized, I'm still with them, I don't kill them, because if I wouldn't run out of bees. When I grew up, yes, I use the daughters of black mothers, so for every year I'm introducing the black bee to somehow compensate for the problem of hybridization. But, if not, I’m clear: today in Iparralde you can’t just grow the black bee.”