Recent content by Apiarist

I see we're talking about humidity, etc. For those interested, some years back I did an experiment and artificially increased the humidity in four hives (research has shown that varroa effectively cannot reproduce above 80% humidity); I'll give you the punch line, two died and the other two...

Excellent critical thinking, of course it could be the reduced chemical load in the area and not the increased wood and scrubland in the area that is causing the improved over-wintering. Your theory sounds more likely.

Hi Buckfasts have effectively no A. m. carnica DNA in them, well under 1% from memory, Br. Adam never included them in the breeding program (although he did test them), the two largest DNA components that the Buckfast breed has are 40% ligusta (Ligurian strain) and 35% mellifera (French strain)...

Surely ecotypes would result in clearly identifiable DNA which I'm not aware of, I've heard of ecotypes, but could the Amm develop them as it is the most recent arrival into Europe, it's only been here for several thousand years, as opposed to the other subspecies which have been here for...

he never said that, I've only heard "Br. Adam said.." from members of Amm groups Yes that's right, the documentary evidence that you would cite to prove the Amm were never extinct is... drum roll... Br. Adam's journal/breeding records (except from 1916/17 to early 1918/19), he also makes...

are you sure they were nucs, and not packages of bees? do you know how many individual nucs (or packages) were brought into NI.

Yes, from memory you have to inform the local Bee Inspectors 24hrs before their arrival (at least that's how it was pre-brexit), but I would be surprised if "NI have a 100% inspection policy", I know they did not have that policy in England whenever 100's of package bees were being imported...

That paper (which is very interesting, thank you) references a study performed in the UK (England and Wales), although Northern Ireland wasn't included, as part of the UK I think it can be assumed the same is happening here too. Also as (the Republic of) Ireland is not mentioned, but without any...

1. Ireland already has a very high genetic purity, therefore showing all these imports appear to be having no effect on the genetics of Amm's here in Ireland (based on 2017 research). 2. If beeks chose to keep Amm's and not import then all their bees are Amm's, with no signs of hybridization...

Shortly after I started beekeeping I met a beek here in Northern Ireland, that had obtained a nuc from the South (of Ireland), their queen died a short while later and the Southern beek popped a spare (old) queen in a cage, and drove the 30 minutes across the border.... no paper work, etc. I...

Sorry to trouble you on this, I've just spent a while looking for published figures from Ireland on bee imports; did you read that figure of 4 imports from Malta from a public source available online? If so can you give me a link to it? Please, thanks.

Can you give us a Link to the Source for this claim, I'm guessing you're summarizing a research (survey) paper? Can you give me the name of it at least?

I have next to zero contact with beeks down south (so I have no knowledge pertaining to this claim), but I came across this Post on an online group based in Ireland, "...I kept AMM bees for several years, but I now keep only Buckfast bees, all the bees adjacent to me are also Buckfast and the...

Whenever a beek tells me their "Buckfasts became aggressive" I always ask a few questions, firstly I learn they weren't Buckfasts, at best hybrids with the local bee (which is Amm's here), then I usually find the amount of Buckfast DNA is around 10% (usually the fourth+ generation after the...

I remember reading research into AFB resistance, basically if the bees were Resistant (different from Tolerant) to varroa mites they also became resistant to AFB: in other words they needed a high VSH.