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Thread: Drone Congregation Areas

  1. #31
    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    That reminds me, I know a man with Buckfast x native crosses now veering back more to native types and they seem as mild as anything. He even looks into his bees with nae veil at times!
    Yesterday I had the pleasure to work on some colonies that needed neither gloves nor veil (they were unfortunately not mine). They have been selected for docile nature, hardiness (it's Orkney, after all!) and production over a long time by somebody who knew what he was doing.

    Morphometry for them is in progress, but I think they are mostly native.

    No sign of them wanting to swarm either, so will try to graft from them when my bees are ready.

    Doris

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    Senior Member EmsE's Avatar
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    This may be a silly question, but when trying to decide the strain of your bees is it the workers you look at? The reason for asking is that I have noticed different looking workers in one hive (not mine though) & I'd be interested in trying to establish the strain of my bees- any hints on where to start?

  3. #33
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
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    Hi Ems

    Not a silly question, and all castes have their own characteristics. I'll talk mostly about workers.

    Native bees (Apis mellifera mellifera) are rather stocky and vary in colour from a warm brown to black. They can have two orange spots on the first abdominal segment but are often free of orange colour.

    http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/at...6&d=1268263175

    Buckfast (as this is a bred strain it doesn't have a Latin name for the race) is a neat, more slender bee usually with a couple of orange bands and with greyish bands on the remaining dark segments of the abdomen:

    http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/at...7&d=1268263187

    Buckfast drones are nice grey-ginger colour.

    Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica) are shaped like Buckfast and workers are usually black with the grey bands of the Buckfast on each abdominal segment.

    Italians (Apis mellifera ligustica) have several pale orange bands on the abdomen. Some call them 'yellow bees' contrasting with the native 'black or dark bee', and this was a useful distinction when Italians were the main imports and the dark Carniolans were nowhere to be seen (they have been imported in large numbers recently).

    Another race which has been imported is Apis mellifera caucasica, a greyish bee.

    They all have their own characteristics, but some that stand out for A. m. mellifera is a relatively small brood nest, white cappings over honey due to an air space, pollen stored all round the brood nest, long-lived workers and queens, and the ability to winter successfully on less stores than the continental aces require. And they belong here.

    G.

  4. #34
    Banned Stromnessbees's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gavin View Post
    Just wanted to reinforce the point that this possible Amm x carnica cross was darker, and in fact blackish, in comparison to the browner native types.

    Using the term black bee or even the dark bee implies that the darker they are the better. In many cases these could be the worst ones to keep if you are trying to select native stocks. Folk using colour as a selection criterion could go very badly wrong.
    I phoned Hans Trenkwalder in my native Tyrol yesterday to enquire about his breeding programme for the Tyrolean strain of Amm. Amazingly he still remembered me after meeting me once 20 years ago.

    There, some enlightened beekeepers had searched for remaining populations of the 'Dunkle Biene' in the 1950s, which was at threat due to a lot of propaganda for the Carnica, which was brought in from the South-East of Austria.

    They very quickly started to use morphometry to test the purity of the lineage. They also established three isolated mating areas in remote parts of the mountains and an evaluation apiary, where colonies can be rated according to production, docility, non-swarming and other traits.

    Over time they developed a very good strain, and these bees were of a medium brown colour. To make them more distinct and therefore more saleable it was then decided to also concentrate on very dark colour, to distinguish them from the lighter coloured Carnicas. Since then their dark bee has become more and more poular, but due to some very stubborn Carnica breeders they still haven't been able to establish a protected region that's pure Amm.

    So where are we at in 2010 in Scotland? - A few decades behind, obviously. But if we get organised we still have a chance to set up a breeding programme for our native bee. Where are the strongholds, how can we protect and expand them? How can we improve this bee and make it a useful and popular choice for our beekeepers?

    Hans Trenkwalder offered to send me some of the Tyrolean dark queens, but I declined, of course. Much better to concentrate on what we have and make the most of it.

    Doris

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