Landrace (bees)

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Landrace or land bee is the slang term for the native dark bee ( Apis mellifera mellifera ) . The term is derived from the general term landrace , which is used for local breeds and types of livestock that have evolved in specific areas without systematic breeding. Until a few decades ago, all European countries on the north side of the Alps were kept exclusively with landrace. Imports of southern subspecies of honey bees , particularly Carnica bees , hybridized the landrace and eventually supplanted it.

As the only native subspecies of the honey bee, the dark bee ( Apis mellifera mellifera ) has adapted to the local climate and environmental conditions since the last Ice Age. So on the north side of the Alps and as a geographical exception in the Pyrenees, the so-called landrace with many ecotypes arose .

From Ireland to the Alpine countries to the Urals

From Ireland through the Alpine countries to the Urals, the landrace received different names:

  • Black bee, Dark bee, Nigra (Switzerland)
  • Braunelle, Nigra (Austria)
  • Heidebiene, Nordrace or Brown German Bee (Germany)
  • Black Bee, Native Irish Honey Bee (Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
  • L'abeille noire (France)
  • Norsk Brunbie (Norway)
  • Ptschjelinyj ljes (= forest bee), Bursjanskaja ptschjela (= Brsjanski bee, after the district of Bursjanski in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan) (Russia)

Imported bees displaced the native landrace

From the Second World War, the landrace was first hybridized and then displaced in most European countries by imports of southern subspecies of honeybees , especially Carnica: in Germany and Austria from the 1930s, in Switzerland from the 1970s and increasingly in the 1990s Years.

Because many beekeepers stayed with the mating, the native landrace crossed with the imported Carnica. The result was hybrids with increased lust and volatility in honeycombs, inappropriate breeding behavior, uneven colony development and unbalanced honey yields.

These hybrid traits have been mistakenly attributed to the landrace. Although the Carnica share grew, the landrace was blamed for the poor quality. A damage to the image from which the landrace suffers to this day. In most of the countries on the north side of the Alps, the landrace was therefore completely displaced.

In the German-speaking countries, dark bees that correspond to the original landrace can only be found in Austria (around 1,000 pure-bred colonies or 1 percent of the total number of colonies) and in Switzerland (around 15,000 colonies or 10 percent).

See also

literature

  • Peter Mossbeckhofer: Autochthonous bee breeds in Austria at the Biodiversity in Austria symposium, June 28, 2007, 25–27
  • Friedrich Ruttner: Natural history of honey bees . Franckh Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-440-09125-2
  • Friedrich Ruttner, Eric Milner, John E. Dews: The Dark European Honey Bee . British Isles Bee Breeders Association, ISBN 0-905369-08-4

Web links

Commons : Apis mellifera mellifera  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

International

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruttner, Friedrich: Natural history of honey bees. Franckh Kosmos Publishing House. 1992, p. 39
  2. ↑ Soland, Reto: From the Landrace to the Mellifera. In: mellifera.ch magazine. February 2010, pp. 12–15 (PDF; 3.5 MB).