Italian bees

[Jimbo]

I am looking for a sample of pure Italian bees to check the wing morphometry
If anybody knows where I might source a sample can they please contact me. Thanks Jimbo

[Neils]

Are they italian looking enough to be any use? I suspect that queen is mated in the general hodgepodge of bees around me given the time it's taken her to start laying since they pitched up but her mother ate pasta.

[Jon]

I am not sure many beekeepers in the UK are keeping pure Italians. in your area I bet most of the yellow banding originated in Buckfast Abbey. Plus the mixture of imports of each and every hue.

[Neils]

*whispers* they might have been imports rather than UK raised bees. Not I hasten to add by me (waves BIBBA membership card), but I know where this swarm came from and where those bees originally came from. I believe that pre-swarm that was still the original imported queen in the colony.

[Jimbo]

you are correct Jon, not many Italians to be found in Scotland as they don't like our harsh condition. Nellie it may be worth a try at morphometry with this colony if you think they are near pure Italians. The reason I want a sample is to compare pure Amm to the pure Carniolan that Jon posted last year to a pure Italian strain. The carnies were so far removed from the Amm plot that the plot had to be adjusted so it would be interesting to see where the Italians plot ends up

[Neils]

I'll double check with the beekeeper whether they were still with the original queen pre-swarm. I believe they were NZ imports.

[lindsay s]

Yellow bees!!! I hope Jon puts on dark glasses before looking at the above picture. My mentor always told me to stay away from the Italians he said they built up to fast and and didn't do well in our cool windy summers.(I think he was meaning bees and not the tourists that arrive here every year)

[gavin]

They look part-Italian part-Carnie to me, Nellie. Large parts of NZ used to be fairly pure Italian. Then a breeder imported Carnie semen and used it in crosses to their Italians to create something that was essentially Carnie but with traces of Italian in them. Then queen raisers in other parts of NZ raise the queens and packages that have been sent to the UK which gives them a mix with more Italians. That may be what you have here - part-Italian, part-Carnie.

Nellie could send some of them to you Lindsay then perhaps we'd hear about something other than neonics for a while. Damn! Mentioned them again.

[Jon]

Mine do look totally different

drones on frame.jpgsealed brood.jpgtwo good cells.jpgQ61.jpg

[Jon]

They look part-Italian part-Carnie to me, Nellie.

There are certainly workers which are dark with wide Carnica type bands and others which have two very distinct yellow bands which suggests that the queen mated with a mixture of drones.
A colony like this can be fine but if you go one generation further it can produce a cranky queen as you don't know which larva is likely to produce the next virgin.