How an annual ‘wedding flight’ of 1,000 virgin queens is ensuring the revival of Europe’s dark bee

The Belgian ceremony attracts beekeepers from the Netherlands, France and Germany keen to boost dark bee numbers and stop the spread of the hybrid honeybee

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very summer, 1,000 virgin queens descend on the Belgian town of Chimay. During the “wedding flight”, a male attaches to the female. His endophallus (penis equivalent) is torn off and he falls to the ground and dies. Mission accomplished.

Beekeepers come and pick up their fertilised queens in small colourful hives, driving them back home, sometimes more than 300km away. They will use the genetic material gathered in south Belgium to build new colonies in the Netherlands, France and Germany.

The point of this annual pilgrimage – which started in 2000 – is to spread the genes of the endangered European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera), the native subspecies of the honeybee (Apis mellifera), which evolved to live alongside the flowers and climate of this region. It is one of at least 24 honeybee subspecies, and conservationists argue it is the only one that should be here.