19) Leigh Slater (AU)

Breeding the Honeybee

Leigh Slater is a queen breeder and honey producer in Tasmania, Australia. For 63 years Leigh has been preserving a pure strain of the old English black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera). Back in the 70s Leigh aided beekeepers in England by helping them reestablish the line by sending queens from his protection zone. The black bee was first brought to Australia over 200 years ago by the English and was the first stain of european honeybee in Australia. Since then the strain has almost entirely been replaced by other strains such as the Italian strain. To my knowledge Leigh's apiary is the only one remaining with a pure AMM strain. The current official status as well as the future of this preservation is currently unclear.

Special thanks to Matthew Crane, Anita Long, Mick Palmer and Laurie Cowen for helping me put together this episode.

1:00 When Leigh started beekeeping

4:13 Preserving the black bee

7:05 taking the strain back to England

9:30 Attributes of the black bee

12:00 The Tasmanian program

15:30 Leatherwood honey

17:00 Ideal honey boxes

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Podcast proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees

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