The Alforí de Dalt estate will house an apiary for the breeding of native bees of the Balearic Islands and training in sustainable beekeeping

The public estate of Alforí de Dalt houses from this Saturday an apiary facility for training in sustainable beekeeping and the breeding and selection of apis mellifera iberiensis queens, the native bee subspecies of the Balearic Islands. The project will be promoted by the AMA beekeeping associations and members of the Twelve Queens project thanks to a pioneering collaboration agreement with the Menorca Biosphere Reserve Agency of the Insular Council, which manages the public estate owned by the Autonomous Body of National Parks of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and that has ceded a space for the project.

"The functions of the apiary will be diverse. On the one hand, the facility will be used to provide training focused on a more sustainable management of bees and adapted to adversities such as climate change", explained the Councilor for the Environment, Biosphere Reserve and Cooperation of Menorca, Simón Gornés , accompanied by the insular director of the Biosphere Reserve, David Vidal. "At the same time", added Gornés, "it will serve as a support station to contribute to the development of the Twelve Queens project for the breeding and selection of Apis mellifera iberiensis queens". This project aims to select a group of queens of this native subspecies in order to preserve its genetic diversity and improve some of its phenotypic characteristics.

"The consolidation and expansion of this later genetics, but also the learning that this project can entail for beekeeping in Menorca, will contribute to the development of a more professionalized Balearic beekeeping sector and to the preservation of beekeeping activity, as beneficial for society as a whole", said the minister.

Different native bee conservation projects are developed in Europe and the conclusions of the scientific studies that have been carried out from this extensive field experiment tend to confirm the greater vitality of local bees compared to non-native ones, indicating that more sustainable beekeeping is possible through the use and breeding of bees specific to each region.

In addition, it is planned that the Alforí facility will allow a study and subsequent scientific publication of the alternative control of varroa, a parasitic mite that is one of the main causes of mortality in honey bees.