Karl Kehrle

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Karl Kehrle
OSB
1991 photo
Born(1898-08-28)28 August 1898
Mittelbiberach, Germany
Died1 September 1996(1996-09-01) (aged 98)
Buckfast, Devon, England, UK
Other namesBrother Adam
Known forDeveloper of the Buckfast bee
AwardsOrder of the British Empire, German Bundesverdienstkreuz
Scientific career
FieldsApiculture

Karl Kehrle

Benedictine monk, beekeeper, and an authority on bee 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[1]

Biography

Due to health problems Kehrle was sent by his mother at the age of 11 from Germany to Buckfast Abbey, where he joined the order (becoming Brother Adam) and in 1915 started his beekeeping 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.[2]

He travelled to

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 and North Africa.[3]

In 1964 he was elected member of the Board of the Bee Research Association, which later became the

Bundesverdienstkreuz
(1974).

On 2 October 1987 he was appointed

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.[6]

Awards

Honorary Doctorates

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

Other

Further reading

  • Brother Adam (1969). Meine Betriebsweise. Franz Ehrenwirt Verlag, München.
  • Lesley E. Bill (1989). For the Love of Bees, the story of Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey. David and Charles Publishers, PLC;

References

  1. ^ The Karl Kehrle Foundation
  2. ^ "Origin of the Buckfast Strain, described by Brother Adam". Karl Kehrle Fondation. Jean-Marie Van Dyck. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  3. ^ Lesley Bill (3 Sep 1996). "Dom Adam Kehrle: obituary". The Independent.
  4. ^ "For services to bee-keeping" - "No. 45984". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 May 1973. p. 6483.
  5. ^ "Hedersdoktorer vid SLU (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet)" Archived 2007-08-01 at the Wayback Machine (List of honorary doctors at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences).
  6. ^ "Obituaries - Benedictine monk was an authority on bee breeding". No. 330. Sarasota Herald Tribune. 1996. Retrieved 3 January 2023.