Karl Kehrle OSB

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(3 August 1898,

Mittelbiberach Mittelbiberach () is a village and a municipality in the district of Biberach. Mittelbiberach is a village between Reute, Stafflangen and Biberach. The river Rotbach flows through the village. Reute, Oberdorf, Findenmösle, Unterreute, and ...

, Germany – 1 September 1996,

Buckfast Buckfast is a small village near Buckfastleigh in Teignbridge district, Devon, England, on the bank of the River Dart. It is the home of Buckfast Abbey, an active Benedictine monastery, which gave its name to Buckfast Tonic Wine, originally made ...

, Devonshire, England, UK), known as Brother Adam, was a Benedictine monk, beekeeper, and an authority on

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

breeding, developer of the Buckfast bee.

"He was unsurpassed as a breeder of bees. He talked to them, he stroked them. He brought to the hives a calmness that, according to those who saw him at work, the sensitive bees responded to." – ''The Economist'', 14 September 1996

Biography

Due to health problems Kehrle was sent by his mother at age 11 from Germany to

Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey constr ...

, where he joined the order (becoming ''Brother Adam'') and in 1915 started his

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most-commonly-kept species but other honey-producing bees such as ''Melipona'' stingless bees are also kept. ...

activity. Two years before, a parasite, '' Acarapis woodi'' that originated on the Isle of Wight had started to extend over the country, devastating all the native bees, and in 1916 it reached the abbey, killing 30 of the 46 bee colonies. He travelled to Turkey to find resistant native bees for selective breeding. In 1917 he created the first Buckfast strain, a very productive bee resistant to the parasite. On 1 September 1919 Kehrle was put in charge of the abbey's apiary, after the retirement of Brother Columban. In 1925 and after some studies on the disposition of the beehives he installed his famous breeding station in Dartmoor, an isolated model to obtain selected crossings, which still works today. From 1950 and for more than a decade Kehrle continued his gradual improvement of the Buckfast bee by analysing and crossing bees from places all over Europe, the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

and North Africa. In 1964 he was elected member of the Board of the Bee Research Association, which later became the International Bee Research Association. He continued his studies of the Buckfast bee and his travels during the 1970s and received several awards, including appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1973) and the German

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(1974). On 2 October 1987 he was appointed Honorary doctor by the Faculty of Agriculture of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences"Hedersdoktorer vid SLU (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet)"
(List of honorary doctors at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences). while in search of a bee on the Kilimanjaro mountains in Tanzania and Kenya, which deeply moved him and he saw as the official recognition of the scientific nature of his research. Two years later he was appointed Honorary doctor by the Exeter University in England. On 2 February 1992, aged 93, he resigned his post as beekeeper at the Abbey and was permitted to spend some months in his home town Mittelbiberach with his niece, Maria Kehrle. From 1993 onwards, he lived a retired life back at Buckfast Abbey, and became the oldest monk of the English Benedictine Congregation. In 1995, at age 97, he moved to a nearby nursing home where he died on 1 September 1996.

Awards

Honorary Doctorates

*1987 Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences *1989 Exeter University in England.

Other

*1973 Order of the British Empire *1974 German Bundesverdienstkreuz

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kehrle, Karl People from Biberach (district) Beekeeping pioneers English beekeepers English Benedictines 1898 births 1996 deaths Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany British Roman Catholics German Roman Catholics German emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom

Biography

Awards

Honorary Doctorates

Other

Further reading

References