Project Discovery

This is an archive of the material I found. Nick Mawby June 2026

BIBBA is trying to record the locations of native and near native honey bees in the UK and Republic of Ireland. This is Project Discovery which is a survey of the location of honey bees that are close in racial characteristics to the native bee Apis mellifera mellifera. It is difficult to tell if your dark bees are the ones we are looking for as the colour can vary from brown to black, but physically the indigenous bees are generally large in body size with long abdominal overhairs. Their main noticeable behavioural characteristics are that they are thrifty, non-prolific and fly at low temperatures and in high winds. (Other characteristics come from selective breeding).Their wing venation (vein pattern) is characteristic and measuring this is one of several ways we can use to help us determine if they are native or not. If you believe your bees to be native or near native then please send a sample of young bees (minimum 30 bees) to…

Alan Jones, 14 Dermott Avenue,
Comber, County Down,
BT23 5JE, Northern Ireland.

(Email first to say the sample has been posted). When you collect the sample please put in the freezer for 24 hours, then dry and pack in paper towel in a cardboard box (not in plastic) to send by post. If your bees morphometric measurements are close to the native bee then we will confirm this with further genetic testing. It would also be helpful if you know the history of where your bees came from initially.