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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12318  by huntsman.
 25 Dec 2021, 12:03
<Brother Adam started something very special.>

Brother Adam started your mess.

He (and others,) could have restocked with Amm from Ireland at the time but didn't.
 #12322  by AdamD
 27 Dec 2021, 15:44
Queen breeding does get better results over time by selecting the queens you want to use and not allowing the bad ones to produce drones or further queens. And your own drones genetics come back in time from the bees in the locality as a result of them mating with someone elses queens. By keeping going for a few years, you should see an improvement in yield as well as behaviour and reduction of such things as chalk-brood. If you have enough bees to have a few apiary sites, so much the better.
There is a limit to the improvement in that some people will bring other genetics into the area which you can't control so there's always a wild-card thrown into the mix. The answer has to be groups of beekeepers working together to improve their own stock and giving queens away to their friends and beekeepers nearby.
 #12324  by NigelP
 28 Dec 2021, 17:52
AdamD wrote:
27 Dec 2021, 15:44
The answer has to be groups of beekeepers working together to improve their own stock and giving queens away to their friends and beekeepers nearby.
Nice idea Adam, but getting a group to work together......
The more practical solution is to have breeding groups trained with II or to have access to isolated mating stations so they have total control of both queen and drone lineages used in the mating's . I buy my queens from breeders who do exactly this. Alas they don't give their queens away ;(
 #12325  by MickBBKA
 29 Dec 2021, 01:00
I don't think brother Adam was the start of the mess, he was left with a very diminished gene pool and rebuilt from that. I don't think there can be any honey bee that has not had its genetics manipulated by man. You can't say Amm is a pure strain as it will have been selected continuously by different bee keepers for generations. It may be Amm, but Amm selected for certain traits like any other honey bee managed by man.

I have some excellent mongrels and their strain is very evident over successive seasons producing around 200lb per colony which is amazing in my area of about 60 decent foraging days a season, but its a very slow process embedding them into my stock. They are open mated and its not very easy to identify which will turn out best. Often I find that the queens that build the strongest in their birth year rarely turn out the best. Colonies that drag themselves into April with 3 frames of bees looking like they are dying can be 20 frames of brood and 5 supers by the end of May....LOL 2,000 eggs a day is another BBKA dogma.......
I also manage to raise colonies that never fill a brood box and only fill half a super, at least I am honest.
If Amm was brilliant nobody would be importing anything. There is a massive push to ban all bee imports so you better have a plan for the future Nigel mate, or a thicker bee suit ;)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2022 TO YOU ALL.
 #12326  by NigelP
 29 Dec 2021, 11:10
MickBBKA wrote:
29 Dec 2021, 01:00
There is a massive push to ban all bee imports so you better have a plan for the future Nigel mate, or a thicker bee suit ;)
HAPPY NEW YEAR FOR 2022 TO YOU ALL.
Mick I have zero concern that there will be a ban in the UK. Successive governments after governments have shown zero concern in beekeeping. The only lobby that has any influence are the professional Bee farmers who make a living out of beekeeping. The majority have to import queens to get a decent crop so they are not going to cut their own throats. The main ones lobbying for a ban are a few 3-4 hive hobbyists who seem unable to see the larger picture. And prefer to believe the oft spouted dogma or outdate beliefs of a vocal few, rather than look at the facts..
 #12329  by MickBBKA
 29 Dec 2021, 16:00
I am sure I read recently somewhere it was more like some eco woke dogooder save the world types that were starting to get involved in the debate. Now they are the ones to worry about, when they start blocking the roads with old WBC boxes we are doomed. ;)
 #12333  by JoJo36
 30 Dec 2021, 07:42
Hopefully for now and in the future we will still have a choice where we get our queens and long live that choice!
We shouldn't let the minority beekeepers dictate what we can and cannot keep the same way they have dictated recently in this country over what we can and cannot say!!
If you want to keep 'black bees' then great its your choice but don't dictate to the rest of us what we should be allowed to keep as we are adults and we can still choose!!!! :)
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE
and let all our bees wherever they are survive winter and provide a huge honey crop next year!!!
:)
 #12336  by MickBBKA
 31 Dec 2021, 02:21
I love my local mongrel black furry bees, its a pity the British Black Bee types think only theirs matter.

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