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experienced heath bee-keepers, I could not easily disregard them. Practical experience, however, soon proved these experts wrong."

From 1925 to 1930, Brother Adam tried out his new beehives on 3 outer stands, with half of the 40 colonies in Dadant hives, and the other 20 colonies in the English federation norm. The results were so convincing that in 1930 the entire apiary, which meanwhile had grown to 320 production colonies, was changed to the new norm. These same beehives are still in operation today, after 66 years!

The Workrooms

There is a simple wooden building at Buckfast for the daily jobs, and this is also used for storing the supers and other equipment. The workrooms for honey extraction and processing and wax extraction are particularly impressive. Everything is meticulously clean and tidy. On the ground floor, in addition to the extraction room, there is a special tiled room for processing the wax and cleaning the beehives and tools. An oil-burning stove produces the energy for all the wax processing as well as the sterilization of beehives and equipment.

In an adjoining room, a tiled trough with an electrical pumping mechanism is used to prepare the winter food. In the extraction room you also find the uncapping machine as well as a radial centrifuge extractor for 44 honeycombs. However it is known that heather honey cannot be spin-extracted. Therefore it is a honey press designed by Brother Adam himself which is the focal point of the whole installation. In this, probably unique, piece of equipment, 20 full combs at a time, after having been removed from their frames (adapted construction of frame and dividing wall) can be pressed hydraulically with a pressure of approx. 100 tons. The capacity of this honey press is over 200 tons of honey a day.

After extraction the honey runs through a filter and is pumped into the honey tanks on the floor above. All in all the Abbey disposes of 11 honey storage containers, each with a capacity of 2.5 tons. In Britain, as in all Anglo-Saxon countries, honey is sold exclusively in its liquid form. Each honey tank is therefore equipped with a heating coil, to heat the candied honey. The temperature of the water in the heating coil is regulated by a thermostat. When required, honey is filled into 1 lb. glasses by an automatic filling-machine. This impressive equipment was also designed and even built by Brother Adam himself -- in many long nights of work !

All the workrooms at Buckfast make a lasting impression, everything seems well planned, worked out and co-ordinated. Obviously Brother Adam did not merely know how to handle bees, but also, and equally well, plane, hammer and chisel.