Editing Buckfast Abbey (section)

===Beekeeping===
[[File:Shop, Buckfast Abbey.JPG|thumb|The Buckfast Abbey monastic produce shop]]
Brother Adam, born [[Karl Kehrle]] in 1898 in Germany, died in 1996, was put in charge of the Abbey's [[beekeeping]] in 1919, and began extensive breeding work creating the honeybee now known as the [[Buckfast bee]]. Brother Adam had to replenish the bee colonies, as 30 of the monastery's 46 colonies had been wiped out by a disease known at the time as the [[Isle of Wight Disease]], but later called [[Acarine]]. All the bees that died were of the Old British Black bee, a now extinct British strain of the [[Apis mellifera mellifera|''A. m. mellifera'']].<ref name="Jean-Marie Van Dyck">{{cite web |title=Origin of the Buckfast Strain, described by Brother Adam. |url=http://perso.unamur.be/~jvandyck/homage/elver/pedgr/ped_BA_1929.html |website=Karl Kehrle Fondation |publisher=Jean-Marie Van Dyck |access-date=7 December 2018 |archive-date=1 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101092744/http://perso.unamur.be/~jvandyck/homage/elver/pedgr/ped_BA_1929.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Br Adam OSB">{{cite web|url=https://www.buckfast.org.uk/bees-past-and-present|title=Bees Past & Present|author=Br Adam OSB|website=Buckfast Abbey|access-date=25 September 2017|archive-date=25 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925230640/https://www.buckfast.org.uk/bees-past-and-present|url-status=live}}</ref>

The 16 hives that survived were descended from [[Apis mellifera ligustica|''A. m. ligustica'']] queens from the [[Ligurian Alps]] region of [[Italy]]. At the request of the government, Brother Adam helped in restocking the British Isles with his disease resistant Buckfast bees.<ref name="Jean-Marie Van Dyck"/><ref name="Br Adam OSB"/> Today the breeding of pedigree Buckfast bees is regulated by the ''Federation of European Buckfast Beekeepers'' (G.D.E.B.) in over twenty-six countries with numerous breeders.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gdeb.eu/|title=Gemeinschaft der europäischen Buckfastimker e.V.|work=Federation of European Buckfast beekeepers|access-date=6 September 2019|archive-date=6 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190906114044/https://gdeb.eu/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Buckfast bees are no longer kept at the Abbey. Instead of commercial beekeeping with nearly 400 hives, today the focus at the Abbey's apiary is educational such as beekeeping courses, workshops, and honeybee experience days with their 4 hives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bees - Present |url=https://www.buckfast.org.uk/bees-past-and-present |website=buckfast.org.uk |publisher=Buckfast Abbey |access-date=3 January 2023 |archive-date=25 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925230640/https://www.buckfast.org.uk/bees-past-and-present |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Community Beekeeping Days |url=https://www.buckfast.org.uk/whats-on/community-beekeeping-days-2023 |website=buckfast.org.uk |publisher=Buckfast Abbey |access-date=3 January 2023}}</ref>