Ouessant Black Bee and its honey beneficial for the skin
You know that I have fallen in love with the island of Ouessant.
I recently discovered the specificity of the Ouessant honey provided by the black bee which almost disappeared.
How is the Black Ouessant Bee different?
This calm and serene black bee has a fairly large, dark abdomen in brown/black colors for better absorption of sunlight.
They have long fur to bring honey in bad weather and wings with strong thoracic muscles to work in the wind and carry large quantities of pollen and nectar.
Its large size allows it to travel more widely, up to 10 km compared to 3 km for another bee.
Its large supply of fat enables it to endure the rigors of winter and it remains free from parasite disease and hybridization.
"This very hairy hymenoptera, hence its dark color and name, has the main flaw of being too efficient," explains Jean-Luc Hascoët, the beekeeper of the Ouessant apiary who looks after the 150 hives of the Ouessant Breton black bee conservatory.
"It goes out in the morning and comes back later in the evening. But above all, it does all the work in two months, whereas the yolk starts slowly in the spring and completes the honey flow in late autumn. Beekeepers were confused at first," says the 42-year-old.
On Ouessant, the apis melliferaa has found a refuge. In 1978 the first two hives were installed by a passionate amateur, Georges Hellequin.
This beekeeper collected wild specimens of Apis mellifera in the Monts d'Arré in central Brittany with a view to their preservation.
The CNRS has conducted research on the DNA of the Ouessant bee. The 100% purity of the variety was established, thus crowning the selection work of the conservatory created in 1989, at a time when the varroa parasite or bee vampire was decimating entire colonies on the continent.
"Our bees serve as a zero base for all sorts of studies," explains the conservatory's employed beekeeper.
Regularly, hundreds of queens bred at the conservatory and up to 500 hives per year are sent to laboratories, individuals and professionals in France and Europe.
Thus, the black bee has repopulated a large part of Brittany, its region of origin, "largely as a result of fashion" but at the cost of hybridisation of around 2% and 8% to 10% in the Nantes region, according to the conservatory beekeeper.
Once on the continent, black bees are not spared the hecatomb that has hit beehives over the past four years.
Beekeepers in Europe and America have lost between 30 and 80% of their hives without the cause of these disappearances being clearly identified.
For Jean-Luc Hascoët, the cause of continental bee mortality is the phytosanitary products and other insecticides massively spread on intensive crops.
"For me, this is a glaring truth. On Ouessant, the losses are 2 to 5%, normal losses," he says. However, the island currently has only one farm.
Ouessant, the bee's paradise
The island flora is free of chemical aggression, rich in pollen and nectar, so the black bee is exceptionally well nourished, and is endowed with extraordinary dynamism and an astonishing capacity for reproduction.
Ouessant honey, produced by endemic black bees, has a very specific bio-element profile. It is very rich in total amino acids compared to other honeys. It should be remembered that amino acids are the constituents of proteins and the major constituents of keratins and collagens, which ensure their resistance and firmness.
The black bee gathers flowers such as the armeria, the spring scilla, the maritime silene, the coastal jasione, the sea fennel and especially the heather.
The Ouessant apiary sends this honey with its complex and subtle, slightly minty flavor all over France.
The beekeeper I met told me something that surprised me a lot, the honey of Paris is not threatened and of quite good quality, in fact the bees find many flowers, sometimes even exotic ones on the Parisian balconies, and in Paris there are no pesticides unlike in our countryside.
The black bee from Ouessant island is protected.
In 1989, the association conservatory of the black bee was created.
In 1991 a municipal decree forbids the introduction of colonies, queens or swarms from the mainland.
Classified as a biosphere reserve of the Iroise Sea by Unesco in 1988, the sentinel island, untouched by pollution and with a perfect ecosystem, is now home to a pure, non-hybrid bee, the Apis mellifera mellifera.
It lives in its natural state, on the edge of the sea, a vegetation soaked in sea spray gives its honey a slight iodine taste.
Jacques Kermagoret, President of the Association Conservatoire de l'Abeille Noire Bretonne, explains: "This bee, imported to the island of Ouessant in 1978 to escape the varroa mite, a sinister parasite that is destroying the bee population worldwide, is here protected from disease and hybridization. It is a unique heritage in Europe, made available to the scientific world.”
If you are looking for this famous honey, the best thing to do is to go and get it at the island's mini-market. If you can find any, I advise you to stock up on it as Ouessant honey is rare.
Guerlain's Royal Bee and the Black Bee from Ouessant Island
To keep up with the momentum of its unique research programme on bees and their products, Guerlain has taken a particular interest in the honey produced by the black bee on the island of Ouessant.
Guerlain has beehives in its perfume factory in Orphin, near Rambouillet.
Recognised as one of the purest, Ouessant honey has been chosen by Guerlain Research as a standard to guarantee the quality of the honeys in the Abeille Royale range.
The Breton Black Bee is one of the species to be protected, thanks to the A.C.A.N.B. (Association Conservatoire de l'Abeille Noire Bretonne).
Among the actions of the Royal Bee Research Platform is an exclusive partnership with the A.C.A.N.B. which allows Guerlain to advance its work in understanding bees and the parameters that influence the quality of their production.
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