Why AMM?
I've been mulling this over for a while now, and tried to figure out a "nice" way to ask the question, but I can't so I"m just going to go for it.
Why the interest in the "British Black Bee"/"Apis Mellifera Mellifera"?
The people that I know here that had them aren't that sorry to see the back of them.
My bees live through winter and give me honey, in my brief time beekeeping I havent had to consider much else. Why should I, as an individual beekeeper care what their provenance is?
Last edited by Neils; 21-02-2011 at 01:57 AM. Reason: Finally able to correct the spelling :)
Because you care, not just about your bees but about the bees that were always here. The heritage of your forefathers, the bees that lived in the trees in the woods before man took over.
More than that, they offer beekeeping something extra. Compact colonies attuned to our weather. Long-lived queens and workers. Better mating in poor weather. Better winter survival, on average, given that they can fly in cooler weather, they don't mind protein rich winter food, and they are very frugal. Effective, sustainable bees rather than high maintenance, high-input variable-output bees.
Why do the beekeepers around you not have pleasant memories of them? They are not remembering the pure type but hybrids with imports which look similar. Also, they are comparing a lightly bred bee of old with highly bred bees of commerce. Amm could do that too if they were given a chance.
Will that do for now?!
Gavin
PS Oh, and two 'll's, one 'f'.
Hi Nellie,
A good question but an easy one to answer. On the Rosneath Peninsula we decided to start a bee breeding group back in 2006 to improve our local bees. The first objective was to determine what kind of bees we had locally. We surveyed all the local colonies and with the help of BIBBA found we had a high proportion of colonies that were either Amm or near Amm, therefore we started to improve the Amm. The reason for this is in my opinion it is easier to improve a pure strain of bee than a hybrid strain of bee. We surveyed the area again a few years later and found that the number of Amm colonies had reduced. The reason was the new beekeepers on the Peninsula obtaining colonies that were local but were hybrid colonies. The main aim is now to set up an isolated site for breeding and to conserve the Amm stocks we still have. We are more fortunate than beekeepers is England where we have a low density of beekeepers and a better geography for this aim, we also don,t have any commercial beekeepers near us which may also affect us in conserving Amm
In large tracts of North Wales we have put our heads together and decided that the best way to get decent bees that breed true is to all keep similar bees so that open matings will result in bees as good as the parents. In a chaotic system, where everyone keeps different bees, there is almost no point in selecting the best to breed from because open matings will always produce variable results - often very aggressive results. In our area, which is pretty marginal for bees, the race that seems to do best are the purest of the AMMs that we have and so we have decided to concentrate on them. Pretty soon I am sure that the areas cooperating in this initiative will soon be full of bees that are as good as the best of our stocks. These best bees are gentle, healthy and productive. However, we have to keep vigilant as any exotic strains that are brought into the districts can undermine all our good efforts so we hold regular meetings, carry out wing morphometry and cooperate with BIBBA to gain access to their DNA testing project. The movement is growing, our numbers are swelling and the bees are improving.
In more clement areas you could probably do something similar with other races but I suspect it will always be easier to concentrate on AMMs as natural selective forces of nature and the environment will work in your favour.
In addition to the self interests of beekeepers, AMMs are an important part of the native flora and fauna and many of us feel duty-bound to try to preserve them for future generations.
Steve
In his book on the black bee in Europe, Christophe Gauthier states that a comparative study shows that AMM harvests a greater quantity of pollen from a wider variety and a greater number of plants. The wider variety helps create a healthier, longer living bee.
It also means that more plants of more varieties are pollinated leading to a greater biodiversity in the foraging area.
Originally Posted by Rosie
In line with Gavin and Rosie's comments, Ruttner notes in 'The Dark European Honey Bee', published by BIBBA, on the general behavioural characteristics of AMM as "extreme economic caution as expression of a defensive strategy directed against a harsh environment".
Putting altruism to one side, in my part of the world it makes perfect sense to support the indigenous bee (notwithstanding discussions on the current genetic make-up of bees) proven over millennia to cope best with a northerly climate.
Some people are breeding great bees from AMM.It is unfortunate for us in England that we only have imports or mongrels.It may suit people with 100 plus hives to import vast amounts of queens. As far as i know Scotland as breeding groups of amm.Other places such as ireland for example have the galtee black bee group.Not forgetting some people are trying to save the Laeso bees in Denmark.Apathy along with stupid EU import rules will further damaged our bees.I am not trying to rewrite the book,although i think we should take another look at it.
Peter Edwards in Stratford upon Avon runs 100+ colonies of Amm so it can be done. Not easy, and it needs lots of stocks to pull it off, but it can be done.
I think he has 160 colonies. He was a speaker at the ubka conference in March and gave a couple of very good presentations about his work.
The Galtee bees are great to work - bare hand bees.
I have a few colonies with part galtee genetics and I intend to graft a few from them this summer.
amm
Hi Jon and Gavin,I wish i could get my hands on some galtee bees.I was tempted to ask Micheál Mac Giolla Coda at Stoneleigh.Although i think he now just breeds for the amm groups.Breeding enough drones to keep them pure would be difficute.Dave Cushman had a great website dedicated to the Galtee bees at one time.The website is now down unfortunatly.Interesting to here about the other amm breeder in stratford.Did he get them from Ireland ?
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