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Thread: Drone rearing

  1. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kate Atchley View Post
    Amm spread northwards gradually after the last ice age, from what is now Spain, to occupy all of western Europe as far north as Finland and the Balkans. In the south the bees were in contact with the Iberian subspecies, in the south east, Ligustica, and on the eastern side, Carnica. So they do not appear to have developed in isolation, nor more so than any of the other subspecies]
    I meant specifically British Amm

  2. #22

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    I still struggle with the idea that Buckfast is a separate race. But given that genetic diversity is a good thing in all species, we will surely not help anything(other than perhaps ourselves) by limiting the pool.
    Surely the import of good lines is beneficial to the future of bees(pests and diseases that came with them aside). If nature had the opportunity to mix races in the UK it would have done. In just the same way as it apparently has done from the lack of pure Amm to be found on the mainland. Would there even be bees on these island refuges if it wasn't for beekeepers ?
    Where I live wind is my biggest problem, so I'm keen to see if my black bees fly on the days my Buckfast find marginal but I suspect that if Amm were simply a better bee for these islands, then the big honey producers wouldn't be heavily biased to Buckfast. I've not yet seen an Amm fill a double brood, my best might make brood and a half next year.
    I am however in favour of stopping imports and allowing nature to decide what's best from the available genetics.

  3. #23

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    Quote Originally Posted by SDM View Post
    I meant specifically British Amm
    Hi SDM
    Steele and Brodie imported loads of Amm queens and packages from France all within recent memory
    Those were sold all over Scotland so the native Scottish Amm might owe more to the "Auld Alliance" and Gallic charm than Gaelic natives and the retreat of the ice sheets

  4. #24

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    I'm still working through the mountain on the NIHBS site.
    I've been seduced by " Gallic charm" on more than one occasion(and highly recommend it), but does that mean the general consensus is, importing good European stock of Amm is to be encouraged(Varroa free areas aside)?

  5. #25
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    NIHBS is against all imports because of the disease risk. I think most of the other beekeeping organisations are the same.

  6. #26
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    I'm running some random local hybrids in some apiaries and breeding with Scottish-sourced Amm elsewhere. I bought Jon's pedigree Irish Amm queens to see what years of breeding can do with them and two of them have been alongside the local mixed stuff for over a year. Most impressive. They needed double brood boxes from early in the season, were more productive in honey terms and were noticeably less swarmy. In my hands in a difficult summer the temper of these two was variable but others report that they are great to handle. So the lack of strength of Amm might apply to random stocks as happens in unbred stocks of most races I would imagine, but when Amm is bred, like the other races, you can get strength and productivity.

  7. #27

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    I have one of Jon's (well 2 actually thanks for that Jon)
    Anyway the one which has been here since the start of the season is on a double Smith
    The comb drawn by them is very nice,
    They don't propolise ,
    They haven't stung me yet
    They have pretty much looked after themselves no feeding required during the year
    It would be unfair to expect every one of Jon's queens to replicate that but there should be a pretty good chance
    I have a fair old mixture in the other hives,some are as good, some are worse, but none are better, so you can't say fairer than that

    P.S.French AMM (done it again caps) had a bit of a reputation for putting the boot in when things weren't going their way

  8. #28

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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    I'm running some random local hybrids in some apiaries and breeding with Scottish-sourced Amm elsewhere. I bought Jon's pedigree Irish Amm queens to see what years of breeding can do with them and two of them have been alongside the local mixed stuff for over a year. Most impressive. They needed double brood boxes from early in the season, were more productive in honey terms and were noticeably less swarmy. In my hands in a difficult summer the temper of these two was variable but others report that they are great to handle. So the lack of strength of Amm might apply to random stocks as happens in unbred stocks of most races I would imagine, but when Amm is bred, like the other races, you can get strength and productivity.
    This is what I intend doing, mostly because one of my apiaries nearest neighbours(3 and 5 miles away) is the local associations training apiary and Wally Shaw's mating apiary. Both of which are Amm. They have no idea I have bees where I do, I just felt it would be " uncool" to split their bees with my usual Buckfast brand. So I'll be nagging some of you next year for queens to hopefully improve mine and theirs.

  9. #29
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Just to add to the online drone resources linked in this thread, I recently came across this article which is hidden away in a commercial site selling carnica, unfortunately I've had to rely on the less than perfect google-translate but I reckon that it's worth a read.

    http://www.carnicaqueens.com/drons_RU.html

  10. #30

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    English text can be opened by clicking on top right-hand flag - the Union Jack!

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