Recent content by Jo Widdicombe

Yes I think that is the point. People love arguing about which is the best type of bees but the real question is, what is the easiest way to get consistency into our bees so that progress can be made in selection and improvement. I do not think any other strain can be maintained in our...

Think I have already answered it. See #67. I think any strain can evolve to cope with conditions they face. That is why I believe best to stick with the dominant strain, avoid further hybridisation and improve what we have got.

Yes I think all sub- species can gradually adapt to any conditions through two mechanisms - survival of the fittest and selection by the beekeeper. But to reap the benefits of these factors we need to stop bringing new untested genes into an area and stop hybridising bees. These are both...

"The UK needs bees adapted to warmer climates" Which is precisely why we keep selecting the bees that do best in our conditions instead of constantly bringing in new stock. The local bee population can keep evolving to be best for local conditions.

Yes exotic means non-native sub-species as randomly crossing sub-species has got us to this difficult position where most people struggle with our local bees. No farmer would randomly cross different breeds. Yes they do produce crosses for hybrid vigour but these crosses are easy to control and...

So Sorry Jeff, it appears I was being 'blinkered, prejudiced, and quick to jump to the wrong conclusions'. My point is that people buy in a good queen of an exotic strain, often believing it will improve the drones in the area but all it does is add to the hopelessly hybridised mess that makes...

I am surprised no one has picked you up on this point, Jeff. Since when has hybridising the local population brought about an improvement. Yes we know about hybrid vigour but with bees, as opposed to other livestock, multiple mating with drones in the area quickly degenerates into a mixed local...

Philipe is not the first to notice that native bees have a tendency to mate with native bees, if not exclusively, at least to a large extent. This may explain how populations of native bees have survived despite endless imports of foreign sub-species. The native drone certainly appears dominant...

I have found this type of incubator to be excellent.

Yes similar to that.

I don't think I have ever seen a light coloured queen producing dark coloured offspring. Some of our queen's are what I would describe as dark stripey but if their offspring are uniformly dark I think this is probably ok. DNA analysis may prove one way or other. I heard a lecture by a Polish...

Thanks for your comments.

Sensible questions. Like in other animals and plants hybrid vigour can give good results for a generation or two, but in honey bees with multiple mating the end result is a hybridised mess of erratic and often poor quality bees, so I think it is the wrong path to go down.

Just to clarify. Yes I understand Br Adam did select his queen's by their appearance but I do not. I do not dispose of queens because of their colour. I assess them on the characteristics of their offspring. If offspring of uniform native appearance, I assume that the queen has mated within the...

We can either add to the problem or try to solve the problem. The problem is hybridised bees. They do not breed true so are hard to select and improve - it takes a lot of time and effort. The solution is to stop adding to the problem by bringing in exotic sub-species, and for beekeepers and...