A lecture given by Torben Schiffer at the 2021 National Honey Show entitled “Man made breeding and selection vs natural reproduction and selection – why modern beekeeping will eventually send the species of honey bees into its demise” The National Honey Show gratefully acknowledge the Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers for their support.

For thousands of years humans have harvested bee products like honey, wax and propolis. Historically, man-made harvesting, breeding and selection did not cause a threat to the species of honeybees because only a small fraction of the genetic pool was lying in human hands, most if it was subject to natural selection and adaption. Nowadays tables have turned, and the main part of the 45 million years old, system relevant key species, (which is literally carrying our ecosystem on its wings) is subordinate to the mercy of beekeepers that are either seeking to use honeybees for their own benefit or are somehow caught in the trap of modern beekeeping with all its side effects. Natural selection is the only force that is able to generate bees that are showing all the facets that define independent and locally adapted survivability has been practically abolished for man-made breeding and selection.

I learnt conventional beekeeping from my grandfather in 2006. My first awakening happened when I treated my hives against varroa and then found hundreds of antennae on the mesh bottoms. This was the bees’ response to the recommended treatment: self-mutilation. It is this experience which spurred my search for better ways of keeping bees. I was fortunate to be asked by Prof. J. Tautz to do research the differences of climatic conditions in tree cavities and modern beehives and its effects on bee health. We have been able to establish impressive data that lead us to conclude that the majority of bee hives in common use fail to offer the bees an environment that is appropriate to the needs of the species, with concomitant effects on the bees’ health. We can already conclude that most of the bees’ problems in our time are man-made. Torben Schiffer