The Brown Bee
The Brown Bee has its natural range in Northern Europe. In commercial beekeeping in Denmark, the Brown Bee has been displaced by imported yellow and Caucasian honey bees, which are more productive under Danish weather conditions.
In Denmark, it is now only found on Læsø, which was designated as a reserve for the Brown Bee in 1993. The Brown Bee is also found in the other Nordic countries and in England, but the Læsø population is considered to be more purebred than the other populations. There are approximately 200 bee colonies of the Brown Bee on Læsø. It is estimated that there should be a minimum of 150-200 bee colonies of the breed in order for the population to be preserved in the long term. Each bee colony consists of one queen, a few hundred drones (males) and between 20,000 and 60,000 worker bees. The worker bees are the infertile daughters of the queen.
