Hi,
I can tell a bit about the Dark bee from Texel, I work with them.
Around 1983 when varroa almost arrived the Netherlands, Texel stopped importing bees. They would be a refegium to rear colonies when there where a lot of die offs on the mainland. This was never needed due to treatments against varroa. On 1996 they had a lot of winter losses and varroa had arrived the island, it's not know how and why, maybe a drone who crossed the see, but more expecting due to import. So in 1994 or 1995 varroa arrived. From research back than the bee was really close to the Dark bee. From mtDNA of the drones around 2014 it was the purest Dark bee population from the population they investigate, there was one hybrid drone. Recent DNA research from Bangor Univiersty in Wales by Dylan Elen, showed they are pure Mellifera. From 3 colonies there are used 10 workers. 2 where 100% pure, 1 had 3% hybridization in it. There will be more DNA investigated.
In the 1960 and '70s there was temporarily Ligustica imported for the collection of heather honey. After the honey collection the bees leaved the island. One beekeeper imported Ligustica queens, I don't know how much. Sometimes you see the ros rings. (Not the Buckfast yellow but ros from the old Ligustica hybrids), but it is pretty rare. I spoke with a beekeeper on Texel who told the bees where not very gentle in 1990 when he started, the colonies with more ros rings where more gentle, so maybe they selected consciously or unconsciously on it. Sadly they didn’t know back than they had the Dark bees. Now they don’t want the yellow rings even they are rare. Because of very less hybridization (95+ pure) the wing index is not reliable. There are colonies who are 100% by wings but also 20%. These are the same colonies.
On Texel there are around 16 beekeepers, 1, 2 or at least 3 of them treat against varroa, and if they do only when they think it's necessary. A lot of beekeepers didn’t treat since varroa arrived. In the begenning they had a lot of winter losses, after that the population was stabile and than grow. The beekeepers have together around 150-200 bees, and there are 40 colonies living in the wild, that’s almost a quarter of the population! The wild colonies living in trees, chimneys and they told me about a colonie who is living for 40+ years in a church. Research done by Romée van der Zee showed that the winter losses is between 1-9%. Because of that reason De Duurzame bij (DDB, in English The Sustainable Bee), started using this bee, because it is a good be for the Dutch climate. DDB select on a slow growth of varroa in spring and fall, good antennae fall on bottom board, gentleness, variety purity, like wings, and abdomen. They use Neeltje Jans in Zeeland as a mating station because, it's not allowed to import bees to Texel, now to protect the Dark bee.
If you want to know more, ask me.
Mathijs.
Here are a few of mine wing indexes from DDB, I have more from the queen rearing from this year what is not yet on the website. I have collected young bees today from a Texel queen from Jacco, the bees are now in the freezer.
http://bijenprofessor.nl/texel…te-bijen/vleugelmetingen/
This is the breeding file of DBB from 2018 and some results, a lot are not in it.
http://www.duurzamebij.nl/uncategorized/teeltverslag-2018/
This I my YouTube channel.
Most of the bees I’ve checked are F1 colonies. I have a lot of material I will upload this winter, I have them on small cells.
https://www.youtube.com/user/MrRubikZz