From: Lucinda Sewell <lucindajohn@sewellhome.freeserve.co.uk>
Date: Sun Dec 17, 2000 1:50pm
Subject: Re: girls on small cells, regressing bees

Thanks Erik,

I read about early plans to cross Carniolan and Capensis as a varroa
resistant strain, in Europe, but I haven't heard anything ever came of it. I am fast becoming fascinated with bee breeding, and genetic heredity in
general, what sort of percentage of new blood did you have to introduce to
create such a lasting effect? Or do you continually add new bloodlines? I
posed a question on Beesource forum about how different strains of bees
really are. If they all interbreed with ease aren't they all carrying the same genetic information, just expressed differently according to where they are?

Re 'regressing bees' I've chosen the smallest drawn comb I can find. I'm
going to make five 5 frame nucs in early Spring, one drawn comb flanked by
full sheets of 4.9 foundation. I'll feed honey watered down to stimulate brood rearing, and hence the need for cells. I'll feed Pollen or protein too, any ideas? I'll keep good ventilation, but insulate or perhaps artificially warm those colonies. The remaining brood on the buggy comb I'll combine with the colonies I am not downsizing this year. (It is awful to realise there were so many other casualties from our treating for varroa with pyrethroids, it's clear to me now why Dee maintains 'shakedown'. I was intending to Snelgrove my colonies onto 4.9, and may try that with another colony anyway. Get the colonies away from the poison in the wax, and perhaps the ecosystem we call a beehive can restabilise itself. I wonder if pollen mites (for example) have been completely wiped out) As soon as all frames are drawn and laid in I will Snelgrove the nuc with full frames of 4.9 foundation, choosing the best drawn 4.9 comb as my central frame. I'll probably cage the queen in at this stage too, depending on drone production. I forsee it getting extremely interesting about then, especially if the rape is in flower, and may have to abandon Snelgroving the nucs in favour of larger broodboxes. This would be a pity, as I want to propogate from the best adapting colonies, and feel that getting queens raised from an already downsized colony/nuc is important. Hopefully 3 day inspections will keep me on top of things. I don't expect any honey from these colonies next year, but they must provide comb, bees and collect their own winter stores.

I need help with selecting my breeders. Any thoughts on determining which
colonies will be the best for grafting from and which for drones? Is there
anything other than dumb luck at work if I inbreed? I'm only going to select for 4.9ers to start. How do I decide the best?

Seasonable E gards
John

----- Original Message -----
From: Erik Osterlund honeybee@e...

> a bit. No, no big wall sides from beginning. But you know I have
> sort of gone a short cut with my bees, as unorthodoxically I have
> crossed some EastAfrican mountain bee Monticola into my bees. I
> did that in 1989. Surprisingly the result became less prone to swarm,
> maybe because the bees cam from above the mountain rain forest
> where no absconding was common as daily afternoon rains and night
> frosts are common. Anyhow the bees I have are smaller today then
> bees around me. I think I have quickly overcome the enlarging
> through breeeding too, that our bees in Europe has undergone in
> 100 years. I have checked what my bees build freely, all of them
> born in 5.4-5.5, and the smallest they build on the same comb
> (it varies) is betweem 4.95 and 5.5. Thos that built 5.5 were bees
> from colonies with