[biggraham610]

Hey yall, I ordered a "Buckfast" Queen from R Weaver to do a split, everything I read seemed like it would be a great line to have. frugal wintering, great spring buildup, good fall shutdown........blah blah blah. I just wanted to try something different I guess. The more I read, the more it seems everyone thinks all bees are mutts these days. I really dont care, just curious. If they make it through winter and pollinate Im happy, wouldnt care what color they were or what thier "lineage" was. Has anyone recently used R Weaver Buckfasts and is there any noticable difference from the rest of the "Mutts".........:lpf:

 

[biggraham610]

Wow, no opinions? Ok, I guess they are all Mutts.

 

[Wolfer]

Understand this is something I know little about. My opinion is that unless your on an island several miles from any other land then you can't be sure what drones your queens mother mated with. I'm strictly talking open mating here, not artificial.
Yes if you saturate your breeding yards with a certain breed there's a good chance but there could always be a sneaky neighbor drone passing by.
I feel the breed anymore just means what color they are but certain characteristics that come into play.

My only experience with this. My first bees were supposed to be Russian. They looked Russian and nearly always kept a queen cell in reserve. Just before she hatched they would tear it down and start another.
There are no other beeks around me but there are a couple bee trees. As the generations went by they stopped keeping a queen in reserve.
I call them my Russian mutts mostly mutt. I'm very pleased with them.
Woody Roberts

 

[Cloverdale]

Hey yall, I ordered a "Buckfast" Queen from R Weaver to do a split, everything I read seemed like it would be a great line to have. frugal wintering, great spring buildup, good fall shutdown........blah blah blah. I just wanted to try something different I guess. The more I read, the more it seems everyone thinks all bees are mutts these days. I really dont care, just curious. If they make it through winter and pollinate Im happy, wouldnt care what color they were or what thier "lineage" was. Has anyone recently used R Weaver Buckfasts and is there any noticable difference from the rest of the "Mutts".........:lpf:

I bought a RWeaver Buckfast package last year; they made a lot of honey...enough that I had to extract...they wintered over nicely and I am purchasing two Buckfast queens from Fergusons
in Canada. I also have mutts and another Buckfast hive from BWeavers. These were too agressive for my home apiary because I take care of my grankids; these bees would follow them to sting them. I requeened. I like the Buckfast bee.

 

[biggraham610]

Thanks for your replies. I guess what you said was what I wanted to hear Cloverdale. I had heard that the bweaver bees were aggressive, I was a little confused because I know they are somehow related. But it seems bweavers are a cross. Hope my buckfast queen works out for me, she will have a nice split to work with. Thanks again.

 

[Deepsouth]

I've tried Rweaver Buckfast and they are great bees. I wouldn't call them Buckfast though.
They build up massive colonies during the flow and were some of my top producers but a little on the hot side

 

[biggraham610]

Thanks deepsouth. I guess time will tell. I only have "Italians" now, so it should be interesting. Thanks for your reply.