Bee breeding and genetics in Europe

Abstract

The following overview on bee breeding in Europe was undertaken for the 6th European Bee Conference ‘Bees without frontiers’ organized by IBRA and held in Cardiff (UK) in July 2002. The European research project ‘BABE’ (Biodiversity in Apis and Beekeeping in Europe) has been focusing on such issues for several years and it was thought that a review of the current state of bee breeding in various European countries would be useful in planning and evaluating future research programmes. The information for each country was obtained from questionnaires concerning bee-breeding issues sent to national representatives of major bee-breeding institutions (bee breeding centres, national bee breeders associations, apiculture institutes) in different European countries.