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Not an old timer but I really like how the Caucasian bee looks. They’re a beautiful looking bee.
A good horse is always the right color!Not an old timer but I really like how the Caucasian bee looks. They’re a beautiful looking bee.
I bought some Carnica virgins from Jason Bragg this spring. Hopefully I will be picking them up in April or May.I've bought queens from many different sources. I've tried run of the mill Italians, Old Sol survivor queens, Caucasians & Canadian-Buckfasts from New River Honey bees and some other Carniolans and Buckfast from a beekeeper in MI, along with local queens from a 70 year old beekeeper. It is really interesting to see the different race characteristics in all of them. I no longer intentionally run full Italian colonies due to too much brood in the winter and having to feed in the coastal Virginia summers. I dearly love the gentle nature of the Buckfast bees and have bought a breeder queen this year to keep a pure line going but I also raise a fair number of queen cells from all the different stock so there is a large gene pool of drones for all the area beekeepers. I found my Caucasians didn't build up well naturally to take advantage of the early spring flow, although that was the only colony that made me any excess honey last year. The Buckfast are my top choice for gentle (even into the 3rd generation) and they make a good honey crop.
The link isnt working.I honestly have no idea what breed my bees are. I have some that are very yellow and others that are tiger striped. My striped bees have taken over the yard as I selectively breed for traits I'm looking for in my area and those seem to be it. We have a terrible summer dearth so prefer bees that shrink down during that time, low robbing, but build up quickly in November when our first bloom comes around. By January, if you aren't at least 2 supers deep then something is wrong and you get replaced - after equalizing and giving everyone a chance of course.
I do bring in outside "premium" stock every year to test their traits. This year I'm trying Cardovan Italians (admittedly because they are adorable) as well as some Carniolans from the same supplier who mates their queens openly in their Cardovan yards...dark bees mated with blonde bees. I'm intrigued!
Here is a 4 year old queen mated on my property from a Saskatraz line. I lost all my Saskatraz queens (why is another topic) except the mother of this girl. Apparently her, mated with our local drones created some great stock! Don't mind my commentary. I didn't want to disturb the poor girl!
Santa Cruz Queen
Were they stapling your socks to your ankles?! Lol.Try the link now.
And a lot of people love their Russians. I bought a couple queens about 8 years ago to try and it was a disaster! They were chasing us around the yard, attacking children during a birthday party and even attacked a fire truck with its sirens on, about 100 yards away. I had to wear 3 pairs of pants and a hoodie under my jacket with duct tape on my ankles and gloves to murder those queens. I'm pretty sure they mislabeled African bees as Russian. I still have that attack pheromones smell imprinted into my permanent, traumatized memory. I ended up splitting that entire hive into 2 frames nucs and introduced new queens.
I'm sure my experience was a little on the defensive side, but I hear a breeder keeps Russians and I run. I no longer want any part of that again!
I now work all my bees without a suit and as you see in the video, they are calm as cucumbers.
Haha!What line of bees did you say your Queen was? Thats the first time I ever heard a bee going Bock,Bock right before she lays an egg! Lol!
Breeding for mite resistance takes time. Testing for mite population growth and selecting the colonies that inhibit the growth, untreated, is the best way to get the resistant ones. You would be getting F1 drones from the F1 queens you are mentioning as the drone's genotype is one snapshot of it's mother's.I'm planning on bringing in some F1 VSH Italian Queens this year and add them to splits. I'm hoping to spread the wealth through open breeding and am in the process of building up a few small out yards nearby. I'm looking to breed for mite resistance, build up, overwintering and then honey production. My current stock of Italians did show mite resistance, did over winter well and each of the hive produced at least a 100 # of excess. As a newer beek, I want to build up comb early this year and be able to introduce the VSH queens to new hives with lots of nurse bees taken from the donor hives the same day I get them. My area has only a limited number of beekeepers and no commercial or migratory so getting those F2 drones flying is important-gonna flood the zone .
we nave a few Caucasian hives here and we love them.Caucasian bee
I'm wondering where the Russians were from, to be Africanized. No African bees here, but in the old days the mixed breed bees were quite aggressive. IOW, they don't need to be African to be nasty.Try the link now.
And a lot of people love their Russians. I bought a couple queens about 8 years ago to try and it was a disaster! They were chasing us around the yard, attacking children during a birthday party and even attacked a fire truck with its sirens on, about 100 yards away. I had to wear 3 pairs of pants and a hoodie under my jacket with duct tape on my ankles and gloves to murder those queens. I'm pretty sure they mislabeled African bees as Russian. I still have that attack pheromones smell imprinted into my permanent, traumatized memory. I ended up splitting that entire hive into 2 frames nucs and introduced new queens.
I'm sure my experience was a little on the defensive side, but I hear a breeder keeps Russians and I run. I no longer want any part of that again!
I now work all my bees without a suit and as you see in the video, they are calm as cucumbers.