Pierre de Koning
Started beekeeping at the age of 15. To fathom the intricacies of beekeeping, he spent several holidays by working with well-known beekeepers, such as Thomas Rueppel, Keld Brandstrup and Eugen Neuhauser. During working with these top beekeepers and the many visits to other well-known Buckfast breeders in Europe, he learned the intricacies of Buckfast.
In the past he has tried out various bee varieties. First the black bee, then Carnica and also Ligustica. However, there is only one bee that can give him full satisfaction: BUCKFAST. And that since 1985.
Pierre is co-founder of the BBV (Dutch Buckfast association) and Breeding Group Marken. Also founder and cultivation coordinator of the Buckfast Holland Foundation and co-owner of Buckfast Holland.
Herman Groen
Like his father, keeping bees is in his blood. At one point he turned the bee products into his work. This resulted in the production and sale of bee “medicines” such as propolis, royal jelly and pollen preparations.
His company’s breakthrough came with the development and later the production of Ambrosia Honey (herbal) wines. This resulted in a factory where many other drinks, including spirits were bottled in addition to honey wines. In 2010 he sold his companies to slow down.
However, blood is thicker than water and not much later he threw himself together with Pierre de Koning into growing and improving the Buckfast bee. After a few years, they decided to set up a company that has grown steadily ever since. Together they built a beautiful beekeeping with the focus on queen breeding.
Buckfast Holland
Since 2010, the two owners of Buckfast Holland have been engaged in queen breeding on a professional basis.
They manage more than 200 bee production colonies. In the area where they have their bees, few places can be found where there is sufficient food supply for more than 12 bee colonies per bee yard. Partly because of this, colonies that perform excessively well quickly come into view. When these queens also meet the criteria set by them, these “champions” are breeding afterwards. The offspring are extremely suitable for export and perform above average in their new homeland.
In addition to their own apiaries, they also manage the mating station on the island Marken. Caring for the drone line is a common thread running through daily activities. In connection with the search for VSH queens, two drone lines have even been set up and placed in recent years. The first drone line, started up on Marken early May, with as many VSH behavior as possible. All in all, a very intensive job to get that done every year.
