If I'd bought a flock and half of them had died over winter, I'd tell someone trying to sell me more of the same to flock off !
I raise my own queens and they are AMM
I raise my own queens and they are AMM(ish)
I raise my own queens and the are carniolan
I raise my own queens and they are caniolan(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are buckfast
I raise my own queens and they are Buckfast(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are Italian
I raise my own queens and they are italian(ish)
I raise my own queens and they are hybrid/allsorts
I raise my own queens as part of a breeding group
If I'd bought a flock and half of them had died over winter, I'd tell someone trying to sell me more of the same to flock off !
Hi PrakelOriginally Posted by prakel
I can only be sure of my own very limited knowledge (2 queens)
From what I have read though there are a few sub types of Italian bees
the very light golden type which often hail from NZ or the USA and a more brownish colour described as leather
These second type seem to be altogether different and might be the ones Brother Adam incorporated in his breeding
Up here there are several possible crops
I am a static person with oil seed rape all around but not much fruit growing and no heather
Higher up there is less agriculture no rape but lots of heather
Lower down Gavin for instance would have rape and lots of fruit farming
There is lots of other forage but the commercial beekeeper will follow the best crop
That means starting with Rape which accounts for the popularity of the Carniolan with an early Spring build up
Pollinating soft fruit might it might be not so important to have rapid Spring expansion again I am not sure
On the heather a cold weather flyer is probably best suited so the people who live up there usually have the right bee for he job
Some big operators have tried Italian bees many years ago
I don't think it worked out -- have to rely on Gavin there because it was when Bob Couston was the bee inspector well before my time LOL
MBC I think a lot more than half of those died out in the first Winter
That's not to say it can't be done with a better strain but buying in queens must be less costly than buying in package bees
Last edited by The Drone Ranger; 09-12-2013 at 12:11 PM.
mbc: If I'd bought a flock and half of them had died over winter, I'd tell someone trying to sell me more of the same to flock off !So, what kind of bees did the first major import in recent years replace? Also, how long had those bees been in Britain?
Last edited by prakel; 09-12-2013 at 05:39 PM.
I will have to dig up that historical info Prakel
My copy of Bob Couston's book "Principles of Practical Beekeeping " is printed in 1972 so at a guess it would be around or before that time
Its fair to say that there might have been some mismanagement involved as well ie starvation
I say that because I believe the originator of the Glenn Hive was a chap called Anderson and I think the bees he had in those hives were also Italian
Bearing in mind he (Anderson) was in the Aberdeen area which is further north by along way from Perthshire
Regards the recent imports I think they were needed for fruit pollination work in Perthshire mostly and they came from Italy as packages which worried a lot of people
Up here as soon as rape is over most of the migratory beekeeping disappears so I don't think they appeared
They might this year though
A poll for the people who raise their own queens
LOL! At last I have a good mental picture of you DR. There's a crow on each shoulder.
Never met Bob Couston though I do have a copy of his two books. I'm just a young man really.
Bees in the summer of 2008, mostly mixed up dark-leaning mongrels. A few pockets here and there of assorted recent imports.
After the winter of 2009 the begging bowl went out and there were large-scale imports of NZ carnies and some others. Also 2010.
Begging bowl out again in 2013 and this time the imports were mixed but quite a lot of Italians. So I believe anyway, haven't seen figures. The coordinator recommended requeening but whether anyone other than him actually did so I just don't know. And so there was a lurch in the direction of Italians in the Scottish honeybee stock, big mistake.
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Last edited by gavin; 09-12-2013 at 07:53 PM.
I can see that there's a bit of history to this can of worms and maybe i'm misunderstanding some of what's being written but I took mbc's post, #161, to be directly referring to recent imports of which half had died during the winter hence the reference regards not going back (next year) for more.
I'm just wondering why these guys keep buying stock that dies the following winter if that is what they're doing.
I have only known one person who tried to keep NZ Italians. She persevered for about 4 years, requeening regularly because they kept dying on her. In the end she had to admit defeat and got some local stock that made honey instead of bees. She had been advised to buy Italians from a friend of hers in Cornwall. I assume they did better there than in her region of the Peak District.
Mike Palmer helps to answer this question in his talks on the sustainable apairy.
edited out: 16/12/13
Last edited by prakel; 17-12-2013 at 12:28 AM.
There was a real craze on those things in the south, they were no good at all, gentle, built up huge colonies, collected honey, never stopped laying, ate all the honey, prone to acarine and paralyses, and died out every winter.
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