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"feral" means escaped from apiaries, which research on the continent shows has a 44% death rate per year, 55% here in Ireland; so they're not going to be around long enough... "natural selection" that would require no beekeepers, ... refer above.

The video says that the Hives' internal climate is "relatively (to the outside?) dry and warm", from memory isn't the relative humidity around 75% to 80% in the brood area and it would be higher in the upper honey areas? The vapor barrier mentioned, wouldn't that then just take the needed...

The results are very strange indeed. A look at the methodology may be a good idea, from collection to analysis? Maybe we should be looking at other ways of honey identification such as the presence of trace elements in the honey?

Hi all I stumbled across a piece of research about Calluna vulgaris (Ling Heather), https://www.academia.edu/17745231/Influence_of_Nitrogen_and_Winter_Climate_Stresses_on_Calluna_vulgaris_L_Hull it mentions the (Growing) Degree Days (you can wiki it) needed for the Winter dormancy to end, or...

That sounds like aggression to me if they're jumping at the beekeeper, a lack of calmness at best (both characteristics are correlated); fecundity and honey yield (although affected by many factors) are genetic traits that has been shown to not be linked to aggression/non-calmness. I think what...

1st I've never heard of adding Virgins into Apideas (mating boxes) in preference over sealed Queen Cells, it was my understanding that one always obtained success (say 99%+) when a sealed Queen Cell was introduced into a Apidea. 2nd I thought the standard universally accepted way of making up...

That's actually very clever. When I tell that to beginners I'm going to tell them a Scottish Beek told me that ;)

How do the bees live that long, is it because they're not rearing brood (which shortens their lives)? - here in NI were didn't have mature Drones until the 2nd/3rd week of May. If you use the same Apidea, etc. you will have to remove the mated laying Queen, and then very soon afterward put in...

The bees all look different, I don't reduce their genetics by culling for colour like many others here, i used four different mating apiaries in 2021, and a fifth different in 2020, the majority of experienced beeks are telling me basically the same thing. I haven't observed inbreeding - spotty...

Thank you for that, interesting stuff.

Thanks for that info. it's helpful to understand your process more. Yes, about 50% success is what I am usually told here in Ireland. I know of one beekeeper in 2021 which had 93%, but the previous year had near 35%. My worst year was 35%, best year 65%, this past year four apiaries at 20%, 33%...

It shows how capable the bees are in detecting that something is wrong inside the sealed cell, such as, virus / disease infection, reproducing varroa mite, etc. and then their ability to open and remove the problem quickly.

Maybe a helpful extra piece of info. would be how many Virgins does one rear, and how many mated (non-superceded) Queens does one produce per year: Michael has said 1200 per year, is that the number you NEED, meaning if you had a poor mating year, as often happens in Ireland, and you only get a...

If you could recall some extra info. on that Video I would be very interested in watching it, it's likely mentioned in a Paper, but maybe it's not published yet.

I was about to say exactly the same thing, but you beat me to it :) I'm aware of two papers, one in 2014 which showed the average bee in Germany now has near 48% Varroa resistance (Pin Test), and another estimating the rate of increase was 1.5% per year... bees only need 75% + (throughout the...

I got this too today! I suppose it's a cheap way, but can't see how you 'manage' the bees?

? The Post to which you were replying to was less than 24hrs old, and this Thread is less than 48hrs old ?

Answers / responses in Italics :) I am hoping that the research already exists, surely someone would have thought of doing it? But maybe it hasn't been published on the usual online academic web pages.

Then why do Amm beeks keep on insisting that it is Native? (when there is no need to do so) IF the Amm arrived in Britain say 9000 years ago, and remained in isolation until around 1900, then that might be long enough for a new sub-specie to develop ... ...I have been talking to different Amm...