From the 1920s it was often supposed, and still is in some circles, that both native and recently imported subspecies of honeybees in the British Isles were largely wiped out between 1905 and 1919 by an infectious disease, namely acarine or tracheal mite (“Isle of Wight disease”). Subsequent restocking with imported subspecies was believed to have rendered native strains effectively extinct. Brother Adam and other influential beekeepers promoted this view, which however was shown to be without any scientific basis by, for example, Dr.Leslie Bailey (Honey Bee Pathology, London 1981: Academic Press; pp. 60ff., 81ff.).
Already many observant beekeepers had protested that their native strains of bees had survived unscathed through the Isle of Wight episode, including Terence Theaker, one of the founder members of BIBBA. Others had come to the same conclusion with the aid of more systematic morphometric and behavioural studies. One such was Beowulf A.Cooper, who from the 1950s through the 1970s was employed as an agricultural entomologist by the then Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. It was largely on his initiative that BIBBA was founded and directed until his death in 1982.
Since Beowulf Cooper’s death the whole basis of the taxonomy of honeybee subspecies has been revolutionised by the technique of DNA analysis as well as by more sophisticated morphometric methods. These have fully confirmed the status of many of the honeybees of Britain and Ireland as members of Apis mellifera mellifera, the native subspecies widely distributed in Europe north of the Alps and Pyrenees. BIBBA is proud to have contributed to these efforts.
History and activities of BIBBA
BIBBA was formally constituted as the Village Bee Breeders’ Association (VBBA) at Alne, Yorkshire on June 13th 1964, after an inaugural meeting held on July 27th 1963 at the apiary of Terence Theaker, Leadenham, Lincolnshire. The name “village bee” was intended to refer to the small-colony nature of the native bees of Britain and Ireland.
At the 1972 Annual General Meeting the name of the Association was changed to the British Isles Bee Breeders’ Association (BIBBA), “in order to make our identity comprehensible to our continental counterparts, with whom we shall be building up increasing relationships now that both the Irish Republic and the UK have become part of the Common Market” (B.A.Cooper, BIBBA News December 1973).
At the 1997 Annual General Meeting the name of the Association was changed again to the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders’ Association, (retaining the same acronym of BIBBA) to reflect the further internationalisation of the efforts to conserve and improve the Dark European Honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera L.), to which subspecies the native bees of Britain and Ireland belong.
Since its inception BIBBA has sought to pursue its aims by
- Producing and distributing publications
- Encouraging the formation of local Bee Breeding Groups
- Holding Conferences, Workshops and Lectures
- Cooperating with similar organisations and with scientific institutions (particularly in the British Isles and Continental Europe) in research and educational activities.