From: RSBrenchley@aol.com
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 16:36:53 EST
Subject: Re:girls on small cells, regressing bees



Hi Dee.

This is a response to your response to Dave and others, but I'm not
copying your post because it gets so confusing trying to wade through layers
of posts trying to remember who said what.

Our situation here in the UK is that up until the late 1800's, people
kept the old British bee (A. m. mellifera), which, contrary to exaggerated
reports of its death, is still with us. Large numbers of A. m. ligustica, and
some others, were imported subsequently, especially after the damage done by
Isle of Wight disease in the early part of last century (feels funny to call
it that). The result is that most of us are keeping hybrids, as our
beekeeping culture is different to yours, and there is far less emphasis on
buying queens.

I currently have hybrids, but want to move over to A. m. m., which is, I
suspect, best adapted for natural beekeeping in our conditions. I also want
to regress my bees, which will be simple, as I currently have a single
colony; I intend to expand to about four or five, which is all I have space
for. So what I'm going to need is a combination of natural beekeeping methods
with selective breeding, and some bought-in queens, to maintain a reasonably
'pure' stock. I suspect the latter may become easier once they have been
successfully regressed.

So how do I go about combining both the 'natural' and the 'unnatural'
elements in a single programme?

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com