BBKA Bee Breeding certificate.

[Beefriendly]

It seems you were right.

Still, damn unfair they run you as guinea pig and fail you....because you keep Carnica. It's patently obvious you know more about how to breed bees than most of the beekeepers in this country.
Beware of BBKA examiners with tick boards...means brains removed.

 

[B+.]

Still, damn unfair they run you as guinea pig and fail you....because you keep Carnica. It's patently obvious you know more about how to breed bees than most of the beekeepers in this country.
Beware of BBKA examiners with tick boards...means brains removed.

I'm not sure that's true, but, I'll accept the compliment in the spirit which I'm sure it was intended. Thank you.
In fact, almost everything I've learned has been from the German and Dutch guys. They are so far ahead of us, you wouldn't believe it. I have a lot of respect and admiration for their achievements. I am only where I am now because of their hard work. I won't forget that.
The assessors knew a lot too. There were a few areas where I was stumped and they had to help me out. I won't pretend I know it all. I don't.

 

[Finman]

Still, damn unfair they run you as guinea pig and fail you....because you keep Carnica. It's patently obvious you know more about how to breed bees than most of the beekeepers in this country.
Beware of BBKA examiners with tick boards...means brains removed.

How to breed bees.... I do not need to know because I buy breeders achievements.

What I do is that I select best pastures to me. No one do it for me.

And most guys wonder why I drive around and search pastures to bees.

This is odd, totally odd. What ever you do is wrong.
.

I do just what I like.

.

 

[Beefriendly]

I do just what I like.

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Nothing wrong with buying queens, drive around, find pastures get lots of honey!
Do you have to ask permission from landowners to put your hives on these pastures?
But if you like breeding bees there is nothing wrong with that either. Bee keeping is a broad church, no need to denigrate those with different aspirations.

 

[pargyle]

But if you like breeding bees there is nothing wrong with that either. Bee keeping is a broad church, no need to denigrate those with different aspirations.

Not likely to change the habits of a lifetime ...

 

[Finman]

Not likely to change the habits of a lifetime ...

5 years to do nothing is not a life time. IT is only 5%. You have imagined the rest 95%


.

 

[Finman]

But if you like breeding bees there is nothing wrong with that either. .

Yeah, I have done it over 50 years. IT is not a "nothing wrong" thing. IT is a key to succesfull beekeeping.

Splended thinking from you. From where you found all those things...

 

[kevrhcfag]

In a similar vein, a thread on another forum showed one of the leading BIBA lights tell people that Buckfast bees are simply a cross between Ligurian and Carniolan bees. God help us all!

That surprises you how?

It seems to me on their visit they had boxes to tick and questions to ask, anything outside that not interested as didn't come into the brief.

 

[Finman]

.
I think that this is a fruitless discussion. Mere rubbish. . Now I remember.... Pills!!

 

[B+.]

An Aside really - I don't quite get why they're introducing two certificates as an 'intermediary' to the GH when neither count towards it.

Splitting the GH up if it's deemed too arduous would seem the better thing to do.

The questions I was asked covered virtually all the modules. Some were well off the syllabus I was given.
Based on that, I wouldn't recommend the course to anyone who hadn't already passed all the other modules.
The practical tasks were quite easy really. Anyone who was competent at queen rearing could do them. The "sticking point" was satisfying their unspoken agenda for control mating of three generations of mongrel queens.
As to why they have a dedicated bee breeding certificate, I can't answer that as the assessment didn't really focus on bee breeding. It was very much a rehashed queen rearing assessment.
I know the German beekeepers association (Deutscher ImkerBund - http://deutscherimkerbund.de/2-Willkommen) have a very good breeders exam so, perhaps the BBKA are hoping to emulate them. I think there is a long way to go.

 

[For want of a better word]

The questions I was asked covered virtually all the modules. Some were well off the syllabus I was given.
Based on that, I wouldn't recommend the course to anyone who hadn't already passed all the other modules.
The practical tasks were quite easy really. Anyone who was competent at queen rearing could do them. The "sticking point" was satisfying their unspoken agenda for control mating of three generations of mongrel queens***.

***
Somewhere to be found in the proof of the solution of Fermat's last theorem!

I see the skogyn is still hiding beneath the bridge!

Thanks B+ for this posting... I guessed there was something amiss when in my first contact about this BBKA module certificate, as on mentioning that I was involved in successful breeding and DNA quantification programme of the Cornish Native dark bee ( Apis mellifera mellifera)... they deigned NOT to send me a syllabus!

We are in the same boat... but in different Oceans!!

Yeghes da

 

[Beefriendly]

That surprises you how?

Suggest you read Br. Adam's "Breeding the honey bee" then you will see why it surprises me.

 

[Beefriendly]

From where you found all those things...

Listening to you Finman..
Now close to your yields per hive with a mixture of bought in queens and my own home bred queens. Thanks.

 

[B+.]

The practical tasks were quite easy really. Anyone who was competent at queen rearing could do them.

Actually, I want to change that statement. It occurs to me that anyone who was visually impaired may not be able to perform the grafting of larvae. They may have to rely on Nicot cages / cell punching / etc.
I wear varifocals and have to wear a magnifying visor to do grafting, but, I am able to do it.
Other conditions (hand tremors, etc) could not be so easily overcome and a candidate would not be able to graft.

 

[Finman]

Listening to you Finman..
Now close to your yields per hive with a mixture of bought in queens and my own home bred queens. Thanks.

I wonder.....

Last two year I changed the whole genepool by buying new queens.
This year I reared 20 virgings and I bought 4 new buckfast for future test.

Nothing odd in this.

The worst in my size apiary is inbreeding.

. My breeding is that I buy new queens and test then and then I rear new queens.
Like do many others in this forum.

This year I can find that the swarming fever makes a big gap in honey yield. IT may be 50 kg/hive.
Buckfast avoided best the swarming fevers and yields were great.

Next summer 2/3 out if my queens are sisters. So I must be careful from where I rear new queens.

But I have have got any advices in queen rearing from this forum, which are worth to follow. I have tried too Pargyles eternal advice "do nothing".

 

[Finman]

Listening to you Finman..
Now close to your yields per hive with a mixture of bought in queens and my own home bred queens. Thanks.

Explanation II

I must have queens which lay two langstroth boxes. I do not accept one box layers. One box layers do not have capacity to store 150 kg nectar and honey.

Good yield.... That comes from too pastures which have many kind if mass bloomers. Pastures I get by driving around landscapes.

Natural meadows give nothing. Nothing to me means 30 kg/hive. Meadows have only hay.

. I have said this many times. Mongrels/hybrids are good as far as they are good.
.

This summer I kept 1-2 hives in each sure. I tried how much solitary hive can collect.
.

 

[B+.]

It's easy to see why people stop posting. There are so many "off topic" posts that it must be difficult for readers to follow the thread.
Please keep to the topic or start your own thread.

 

[Finman]

.
There are so much rubbish posting. Same gang insists same fairytales.

 

[B+.]

.
There are so much rubbish posting. Same gang insists same fairytales.

Indeed.

 

[Beefriendly]

Explanation II

I must have queens which lay two langstroth boxes. I do not accept one box layers. One box layers do not have capacity to store 150 kg nectar and honey.

Good yield.... That comes from too pastures which have many kind if mass bloomers. Pastures I get by driving around landscapes.


.

Spot on, big hives and moving bees to crops is the way to get big yields.