Bee breeding/improvement groups

[The Drone Ranger]

As far the relative numbers of hobby and commercial stocks goes, Murray is the one with apiaries in the area of the association apiary. His stocks in that area are the ones he calls native types and the imported NZ carnies are elsewhere. Plus we have a truly isolated site in mind with permission from the owners, and control of the genetics at each end of that valley. Just not enough stocks and time yet to use it. The combination of a central nucleus of purer stocks feeding into (and using selected queens from) a broader network of apiaries in more mixed areas sounds like a good plan to me. As long as there is energy and commitment amongst those who would like to make it happen, and that is never an unlimited resource - including from me. Belfast is very fortunate to have Jon.

sounds like a plan

An isolated site is a sort of pre-requisite

I grew up in Longforgan (I don't know if I mentioned that already)

Does Murray Macgregor do wing samples on his native types ?

[gavin]

The trouble is, it is still really just a plan. It will take effort on someone's part to make it happen. Thought that would be me, and now I'm not so sure. Murray isn't interested in keeping his native-type stocks pure (yet!) although he does have some interest in keeping a pool of selected NZ types from which to breed queens.

[The Drone Ranger]

I've was stung a few times yesterday putting some food on the hives (ungrateful)
My thumb is swollen from an infected/broken off sting
Hey ho!
The Co-0p could target its funding to native type bees instead

[GRIZZLY]

Wish we could get something going here in S.W.Scotland.

[prakel]

Jon, or anyone else involved in one of these groups, do you encourage the members to evaluate their own colonies and then put forward any that they think worthy of further (group) assessment for possible use as breeder stock or is the group pretty much just learning the queen rearing skills while working with colonies which have been donated by the group leaders/motivators?

In a similar vein (and at the risk of asking you to generalize), are the members evaluating their own colonies with the intention of keeping their best lines or do they tend to approach from the perspective that they want to requeen everything with group raised queens irrespective of what they may already have?

[Jon]

Hi Prakel. We are only finding our feet as a group. This is only the second year and a lot of the members are relative beginners.
there is a lot of basic beekeeping to learn as well as the queen rearing.

The grafts are being done from several colonies I brought to the association apiary and one other there which has a good queen which came from my stock last year.



At the moment I think the priority is learning the basics such as managing an apidea, finding, marking and clipping queens, methods of requeening a colony, and stuff like that.

I keep careful records but I don't see many others in the group doing that yet.

The biggest issue for our local beekeepers is swarm control. Very few are on top of it.
90% of the older established beekeepers make no attempt at swarm control so they set a bad example for the new ones.
I have had beekeepers argue with me that all bees swarm so there is no point trying to stop it.

Evaluating a colony requires a fair bit of experience and judgement. A colony is hard to assess if you wear so much protection you can work oblivious to serious aggression.
People I know who have psycho bees think they are acceptable.
'Feisty' is the word often used.

[HJBee]

Jon, from a beginners perspective, I would not like to think I have failed if my bees swarm, as long as I have made every attempt to do the husbandry to prevent. So out of interest how many of your hives have swarmed and how many have not, and for those that did what was the main cause in your view?

[Neils]

HJ,

I wouldn't see bees swarming as a failure per se, this is the first year where I so far haven't lost a swarm (still time yet!). To date I've always managed to be there to hoik them back into a hive, but I'm aware how disruptive and intimidating a swarm can be, and how little I enjoy having to collect the bloody things when they aren't my bees.

I do think there is a difference between trying to manage swarming and losing one anyway and making no effort to manage it or, even worse, encouraging it. This is definitely an area where clipping can be a real bonus, it gives you the added security that even if you miss the signs, and you lose the queen, that you aren't going to end up with your bees hanging in a neighbours tree.

[Jon]

1 out of 18 colonies has made queen cells this year.
last year it was something like 4 out of 14.
I did an artificial swarm on that one at the association apiary and requeened it with a queen cell and it still managed to throw a cast.
That was my fault as it made extra queen cells and I didn't check a few days later to remove them.

A lot of the swarminess is in the genetics.
The other main cause is overfeeding in Spring when they don't need it.
I will have a few start swarm preparations in July.

All beekeepers lose swarms on occasion but I know a beekeeper with a couple of colonies who loses 2 primes and several casts every year.
Clipping the queens is a big help if you are doing weekly checks May June and July.

Sometimes I feel I am banging my head against a brick wall as it is the experienced keepers who do no swarm control.
Their swarm management is better stated as swarm retrieval from hedges and bushes.

[HJBee]

Impressive stats. Interesting re spring feeding, will lock that away in memory vaults. Have enough equipment to move to a double brood next year, but may re think and get an extra roof / crown board & floor instead for doing an AS. Not sure yet.