Bees and Bicycles
BEES AND BICYCLES
Episode 1: BY THE HAND OF MAN
How acarine disease wiped out the entire native British bee population and inspired Brother Adam, in 1925, to establish the world's first bee-mating apiary in a remote moorland valley on Dartmoor, England. A season of bee-breeding at Buckfast Abbey. The workings of the beehive.
Episode 2: THE GERMAN DISCIPLE
The journey's of Brother Adam through Europe, the Levant and North Africa in search of the genetic ingredients used to synthesise his world-beating honeybee. En route to seek fresh genetic material in Tanzania, Brother Adam visits the Bavarian Alps where his breeder queens are multiplied.
Episode 3: AFRICAN QUEENS
Brother Adam’s last expedition. In 1987, at the age of 89, he leads an extraordinary trek to Africa in search of new genetic material - the elusive black bee of Kilimanjaro. Within days of his return to Europe, Brother Adam receives an honorary doctorate at Uppsala, Sweden.