The dark European bee is the subspecies native to northern and western Europe. Through importation and crossing it has declined sharply in many regions.

Characteristics

• Colour: Dark to nearly black, with little visible banding
• Build: Robust, with longer hair
• Temper: Variable; some lines calm, others distinctly defensive
• On the comb: It often runs off the frame, which makes working harder

Strengths

• Excellent wintering: Small cluster, low consumption, tolerates long wet winters
• Flies at low temperatures and in poorer weather — a real advantage in a northern climate
• Exploits short flow windows
• Frugal: Adjusts brood rearing during a dearth
• Long-lived bees

Weaknesses

• Slow spring development: It builds up later than the Carniolan
• Smaller colonies
• Variable temper, depending on the line and the degree of crossing

The crossing question

Much of this subspecies' poor reputation comes not from pure lines but from crosses. Crossing with imported subspecies often produces markedly more defensive and less predictable offspring.

This is one of the reasons protected mating areas exist.

Conservation value

The dark bee has been adapted to the north-western climate over thousands of years. That adaptation is a genetic reservoir that cannot be recreated once lost.

Conservation programmes with protected mating areas and pure-line breeding operate in several countries.

Which conditions suit it

Cool, wet, changeable climates with a short summer — precisely the conditions in which imported subspecies struggle.

Where it is locally available it deserves serious consideration: adaptation is an advantage no catalogue can supply.