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Bee Weaver bees/calmness

15K views 47 replies 16 participants last post by  sfisher 
#1 ·
I purchased some Bee Weaver queens for 2013. I was wondering if anyone has had any trouble with them being mean. Also any bees that you may have bred from their queens. Or have they all been nice bees. Thanks Steve.
 
#2 ·
After reading numerous posts at beesource and based on my own very limited experience, I think that mite-resistance somehow linked to more protective behavior of the bees. I do not know if there is anything real behind such observation. I was thinking another day and it makes sense: if bees are capable to protect their home from intruders and chase me in the house - they probably could do the same for mites and other "visitors". In this sense, mite-resistance may be actually connected to protective behavior (sort of the part of it). Bee Weaver bees are known to be mite resistant. It would be interesting to hear if anybody observed the link between mite-resistance and protective behavior? Under "protective behavior" I do not mean something extreme like AHB; everybody hopefully would agree that there is a difference between bees: some may be worked in T-shirt, some - in beesuit. Mine bees required fancy vented beesuit... they are not Bee Weaver bees.
 
#9 ·
After reading numerous posts at beesource and based on my own very limited experience, I think that mite-resistance somehow linked to more protective behavior of the bees. I do not know if there is anything real behind such observation.
I've heard of no research that supports this conjecture. Not saying there is none, I've just not seen it. I've got VSH bees (and other hygienic bees) that are very gentle and also very mite resistant. On the surface there doesn't seem to be a correlation between protective behavior and mite resistance. Any references to the contrary would be appreciated.
 
#7 ·
Indeed, love my B Weaver bees. I started with one package in April 2012. They built up so quick that I split to 4 nucs, and then built back up to 4 full hives. They are very gentle, and I only get stung when I deserve it. Up until September I was able to mow around and under the TBH's with no issues. But then one hive got knocked down and sits on bricks. When I got close to the entrance a month or so ago (mower exhaust at entrance level), they came out hot! No big deal though, I suited up and finished the work with little disturbance.

I am 100% satisfied with me B Weaver bees. I have seen no mites, and have observed (filmed) them harassing/removing SHB from the hives. I intend to get 10-20 more packages from B Weaver in spring 2013 to greatly up my herd!
 
#8 ·
I did a similar thread, link below, and am very pleased with my BeeWeaver bees. I have ordered two packages for 6 April pick up in their Navasota site and one for a friend. Riding with me is a another friend picking up a package for his second TBH hive. My history is about half way down in the attached thread link but I consider the bees very peaceful. I sit within 10 feet of the hives watching them periodically and have only gotten the buzz/bump warning a couple of times. I check my FBM feeders daily in my work clothes light or dark clothes with no suit or veil and RARELY have issues. I can do inspections in a short sleeve T shirt with a veil and vinyl gloves with only occasional stings, usually on fingers. I have only had two incidences where they got cranky. The first was when I did a split and inadvertently removed the queen from the donor hive for 2 days, all was peaceful again after the queen was returned for 2 days. My second incident was when I was doing hive stand modifications and all three hives got dumped forward on the ground. They were peaceful again the next day. I have been feeding them, see timeline, this year as a start up and split, but will not feed next year except in dearth periods. I have not seen any mites and they seem to keep the SHB under control. I did put SHB specific nematodes in the ground around the hive that seems to help with the reduction. I am also well pleased with their production, but next year will be my first harvesting. Yes I highly recommend them and will use BeeWeaver as my sole purchase vendor, I could capture some swarms and I would probably re-queen with a BeeWeaver queen.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/sho...r-package-bees-April-2013&highlight=mmmooretx
 
#11 ·
BWeaver Bees are hybrids of 4 kinds of bees, the smallest part being intentionally AHB.

I get the feeling that one of the reasons my BWeavers are so resistant to mites is because the hive is just so ****ed strong. It has tripled in size since April, 2012. Another poster today---also a BWeaver believer---said he can't even find mites on his, and has seen his girls "wrestle" SHB.

Yes, the Weavers are great to deal with.
 
#12 ·
The phrase "protective behavior of the bees" is what I was responding to, which of course may have nothing to do with AHB. AHB is, of course, very protective, but as you pointed out has other traits that may help it against varroa.

And your comment: "...transitional areas where almost mysteriously African bees have never moved into..." Didn't you hear that they have perfected invisible biosphere technology...nothing unwanted can penetrate it. I'll send you a link if you want....
 
#13 ·
The phrase "protective behavior of the bees" is what I was responding to, which of course may have nothing to do with AHB. .
Agree completely
Invisible biosphere? I'm afraid to ask but I think I might have seen something about it at the checkout counter the other day, the story about Bigfoot being alive caught my eye and...:eek:
 
#14 ·
I have one Beeweaver yard with probably 15 hives in it. Some are swarm cell splits from my BW queens. The queens definately hold their own, build large colonies and have overwintered well. I think I lost one colony in that yard last winter. They just up and left with 2 shallows full of honey. I have not seen that happen often though. I will say that I do notice a difference working this yard especially in the spring if the weather happens to be cold and windy. I found that out the hard way a couple years ago. Other than that I have no problems working them as I do my other yards. Just a veil, no gloves etc. My wife calls them 'crazy bees".
 
#17 ·
'Weavers have a little African in them, due to the Buckfast breed - and probably more so because they came from Texas. A lot of our ferals act very similar IMHO. I have several friends with Beeweavers and can't tell much difference only that the wild bees are a bit swarmier. The truly African traits of runny nervous bees, swarminess, excess defensiveness, and lack of honey - gets my girls a new queen.

One of my friends had a hive of them that he started in May and it swarmed several times this year, so yeah, I guess they can be swarmy too.
 
#18 ·
I have 6 hives today. One Rweaver Buckfast and two BeeWeaver queens. Those three are not as protective as my Carniolan/Italian queens mated with my local drones. All keepers, no more defensive than my first Italian hive in 1977. I've heard anecdotal reports, but my experience is negative for defensive bees from the Weavers. :)
 
#23 ·
I bought 3 in July no complaints here all 3 hives are very strong. Went into winter with large cluster and plenty of honey reserves if it is not another warm winter. Ya aggressive behavior and being mite resistent are 2 traits in one. I noticed that in some bees I got out of a old house when I first started keeping bees.
 
#25 ·
It looks like my bees and many other feral/survivor bees are very similar: they do protect the hive from ANY intruders including mites, humans etc. I never had other bees, so it is impossible to compare. Speaking about my bees, they are calm most of the time - I am sitting next to the beehive every morning, no problem at all. But, getting into the nest with clumsy hands made them mad very quickly! With my limited experience (and confidence) they usually tolerate upper 3 boxes and THAN switch into "protective" mode! I have to tell you, their "protection" is something! But even in this agitated state, they usually do not follow me more than 20 feet and calmed down substantially withing an hour or two... 2-3 bees would patrol my backdoor for 3-7 days... after that - everything very peaceful and calm - nice, very "gentle" girls, busy working... After this thread, I really think that "protective" behavior and mite resistance is one thing - it is just protective behavior against everything, it is just one useful trait, than, it is not possible to separate those two things - "mite resistance" and "protective behavior".
 
#26 ·
Well calm is a description that folks may or may not assign to bees relative to how they are acting on any given day. Let's remember it is a natural instinct for bees to defend their hive. I am not sure that Weaver bees are really any less calm than bees from any other source. If you are worried about being attacked by just being near a hive then let me put you at ease, that isn't going to happen but hey they are honeybees and like any others they will occasionally sting you if you don't handle them properly and that's not exactly a bad thing.
 
#31 ·
There are a lot of myths out there involving AHB. All bees are swarmy. The main thing with AHB is that they produce worker bees in a staggering number. I had a hive once that tested out as AHB that went from a cut-out of 3 frames which grew to 4 boxes and made a good honey crop within 2 months. Very impressive. They were difficult to work because they were horribly nervous and runny, so I re-queened them. They never did swarm on me, but when I pulled their queen to re-queen them they made 14 queen cells to replace her - almost over night.

Back to the subject of Beeweaver bees. The bottom line is that they are a "survivor" breed and basically very similar to domesticated ferals in many ways.
 
#33 ·
Jim Im not worried about being attacked, I have a acre lot with a six foot solid fence all the way around the backyard. I have a neighbor with a driveway right on the other side of the fence. I usually only work my bees on my day off which is Sunday. If Im working my bees and he is working on his boat, I dont want to get him attacked. Im sure B Weaver bees wouldnt do that all the time, but I cant have it happen at all. Im just looking for someone to tell me what there B Weaver bees are like, and hopefully they would say nice. What I am hearing from most people is that they are defensive. I dont mind them being defensive, as long as they know who to be defensive against. Please keep the post comming, Im waiting to see the one that says his B Weaver bees are the gentelist bees he's ever seen. Steve
 
#34 ·
... I dont mind them being defensive, as long as they know who to be defensive against....
If they are similar to mine (survivor), than, yes, they do know against who be defensive. They somehow identify me (properly) as a reason for disturbance. We have a large screened window and after disturbance 2-3 bees patrols the backdoor and window. They do zig-zag and trying to bump the screen when I am standing next to the screen (no beesuit). They are not interested at all when my wife is standing instead me. So far, they extend their defense to our backyard, which is 50' may be and keep it under control for a few days. But last time they were more than usual agitated - one girl managed to sting neighbor's gardener, which was not good at all! With two beehives and 5 neighbors, only one casualty has been reported withing the year.
 
#36 ·
Just watch your new ferals. If they start bearding heavily or form a beard/collar around the top of the hive when you open it up, or if they are really nervous and drip off the frames and run around like roaches - definitely re-queen. Those are all the warning signs of high AHB genetics. The famed defensiveness can come and go - it's really more like unpredictability. They are sort of like "wild" bees on turbo mode. That's what makes them dangerous to the unprepared or unexpecting beekeeper and his surroundings.
 
#38 ·
The genetics (varroa resistance and calmness) are both in the queen. If you requeen, your hive genetics will turn over in 5-6 weeks. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But that's where Beeweaver makes their brand, in there queens. You could get a colony of Africanized worker bees and requeen with a Beeweaver, and in 5-6 (summer) weeks have nice bees. The old mean ones will die off and be replaced by gentle genetics.
 
#39 ·
Not trying to be difficult but curious. So you wouldn't get half and half? Meaning the drones DNA/traits of say an Italian mixed with B Weaver Queen would be canceled out in 5/6 summer weeks?

For example if I took the B Weaver queen out and added say a VSH Queen, the drones of the B Weaver DNA/Traits wouldn't matter, it's all dictated by the Queen? (I wouldn't say this is hard to believe as some species of fish can change sex like the Clown Fish and other odd animals that do some pretty amazing things). However there are Hybrid bees and in fact B Weaver has 4 or so Bees races in their Bee lines. So the Bees would be half Italian and Half Bee Weaver (Buckfast) but all the Hygiene traits and calmness is only passed down from the Queen? Or did I not understand your point? I really am trying to understand.

Wouldn't have fixing the AHB issue been faster? If you just requeened with the Buckfast colonies that didn't get infested with AHB if none of the traits are kept, but wait. Some traits have to be kept, that's how the Buckfast bee was made?
 
#40 ·
The new queen that you put in is already mated, therefore the genetics of the drones left behind from the old queen will not mate with her. I suppose if the drones are mean they might bother you, but they don't have stingers anyway, so you can just slap them around and laugh. Now, if you introduce a virgin queen, and she mates with only drones left behind by the BeeWeaver queen ,then indeed, her offspring would be half and half.

I don't know what you're saying about the Buckfast colonies not getting infested by AHB? Is there some evidence that Buckfast bees are not susceptible to mating with AHB. There are rare instances where an AHB queen will move into a calmer Italian hive, kill that queen, and take over. But otherwise, if AHB is in your area, then your only real risk is a virgin queen mating with a few AHB drones, thus causing her to put off some mean bees. But keep in mind, the queen will mate with 10-20 drones. Let's say 20, and she mates with only one AHB drone. So statistically, 1 in every 20 of her worker bee offspring will be half AHB. I believe I have witnessed this in a hive I inherited. I could go out there one minute, walk right up to the hives with no issues. Go back hours later, and a bee met me coming, 30 feet away, and stung my arm before I even knew what happened. I have no proof they were AHB, but certainly there were a few bad apples in the bunch. I got rid of that hive, and the associated aggression.
 
#41 ·
trance your query depends on whether the VSH queen is mated or a virgin on the changes to the hive. Queens only make one mating flight and mate with 30 or more drones for their lifetime supply of sperm. So if you add a mated VSH queen she will not collect any BeeWeaver drone characteristics for any of her children. From what I have read on queen rearing you will never know what kind of drones she mated with, at least for the small apiaries. The large commercial queen rearing areas "flood" the area with their drones, but they are still at risk for picking up some random unknown drones. True or not I have read that queens tend to not mate with drones from their hive.
I am not an expert, but have read one book on queen rearing and decided to leave it up to others. I now have 6 BeeWeaver populated hives and am very happy with them. I constantly walk around them, 2-3 feet away, and my only impacts are when I am in the return flight path. 6 Apr. '13 I installed 4 packages, pulled comb from 2 existing hives, and only got one sting on my thumb, no gloves. One install was into a friends TBH.
 
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