From: RSBrenchley@aol.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 17:28:23 EDT
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Progress Report

Hi All.

I currently have two colonies, in central Birmingham, UK; one is on combs
drawn from 5.0mm (Dadant's messed up first attempt at small cell) strips
added to splits on 5.4mm. This resulted, not surprisingly, in more 5.4mm
combs. In a way it was a waste of wax, but at least it gave me a control. The
other was a swarm hived on 5.0mm, with the original colony subsequently
combined with it when it proved to be queenless. This is pulling 5.25mm. comb.

I raised three queens during May; one disappeared; the others mated
successfully, in terrible weather. The original queen failed a week after I
split the hive, and was squashed. She was black with a bright yellow stripe,
the workers she produced were about 2/3 black, the last third with a yellow
or golden stripe. One of the new queens is black with a golden stripe, the
other is leather coloured, very Italian looking. Both produce workers which
are black with a leather stripe. I never saw a single leather coloured worker
produced by the last queen; talk about genetic instability! The guy I got
them from described them as 'local mongrels'; it's a bit perjorative, but you
can see why.

Regards,

Robert Brenchley

RSBrenchley@aol.com