Printable View
Indeed, Kq6ar. The bees are obviously fighters :). I would also expand from there. With bee resistances, usually there is not a perfect mmix of character and resistances with bees. I would not play around that much, but try to work with what i got in the best way possible.
Thanks All,
Those are my plans exactly. I was in these 3 colonies this past weekend with 1 of the 3 extremely full of bees- 2 deep hive bodies both full of bees with the queen laying in both top and bottom. I'd like to split them ASAP but I'll not have an active drone population quick enough for breeding purposes.
With that in mind I'm entertaining the idea of purchasing a VSH queen from a reputable breeder giving me an early split in time for both splits to build their population to produce a honey crop this year.
As long as I can obtain a new queen by March 1st then my plans will be safe.
I would not play around that much, but try to work with what i got in the best way possible.
JMHO,,,,,That is the way I'd go :) Good suggestion.
Rick
Here is what I do - I obtain a decent queen and surround her with my wild survivor hives. Then I breed from the progeny. I would keep those bees you have relatively unchanged, and maybe just add new queens into splits made from them - not too many though... just enough to keep from getting inbred. Every year or so, add another queen from a different line for variation. I have been using Carnie and Russian-ish queens lately.
They say the survival characteristics are passed down through the drones and the temperament is passed down through the queen. I am not a geneticists, so I can't say for sure - but that is how my operation is set-up.