Amm / Native Black Bee Discussion

Hello,
For those interested in Amm / Native Black Bees. Tell us about your bees, queen rearing groups, successes and failures.
Please feel free to post your experiences, observations, or questions regarding the above.

 

[warsaw_hive]

 

[Dibbler]

Probably a daft question, but if you got a mated Amm queen and introduced her to a queenless colony of let's say one of my hives. Would the next brood be black bees ?
So making a colony of Amm bees that you could rear more Amm Queens from ?

 

[hemo]

Yes brood will be black bees all the time she lays it.
Raising Q's unless under controlled means will mean subsequent daughters will be hybrid bees if relying on open mating , so bees then raised would be a mix , one would see some dark bees but also browner or amber bees.

To keep the line true one will need to control Q breeding or keep buying in new Amm Q lines if Q replacement is needed.

 

[Swarm]

The first of my 2024 Amm queens has taken off and has eight frames of brood, most of it capped. I'd already distributed spare supers to other colonies so I'll have to call back tomorrow and give them a super.
I think I made a good choice selecting the queen at this apiary to raise daughters from this year, I've been quite surprised as well if I'm honest, considering all the brood and bees donated. She was built up to double brood and two supers before adding a third brood box followed by a vertical split and dropping her back onto double brood. I did a second split, removing more brood and bees into two nucs and far from checking her progress, she has since built back up to double brood and four supers, the boxes are very full with bees. They had a fifth super today when I found a load of white wax on the crown board, a very hard working colony and quite pleasant as well so I'm hoping the daughters follow suit.

 

[SWEET]

I've some nice *local* black/dark Queens appear from OM this year - (pay little attention to the worker colours, these are from a mix of hives)

 

[Swarm]

Stunning photo, SWEET.