Better Queen mating

[madasafish]

Second generation Buckfasts, from random drones, do have a bit of a reputation - regardless of your local wild man.
.

I have read that before and about Carniolans. I have third generation Carnies and 2nd generation Buckfasts : they have cross bred with random drones.

So far touch wood they are as docile as New Zealands.

Is this another beekeeping myth?

 

[Anduril]

Second generation Buckfasts, from random drones, do have a bit of a reputation - regardless of your local wild man.
I wouldn't think you'd be best advised to look for a better mating site for your Buckfast daughters. Rather to think in a different direction.

I also have second generation buckfasts crossed with mongrels very gentle to handle

 

[Hivemaker.]

Is this another beekeeping myth?

Yes.

 

[Bryanthebee]

I really believe our problem is localized and there are bee keepers that have no worries about the mating of they`er queen. second, third ,forth, generation.
what we must remember is my queens are really not second generation if they have come from a queen which is also several generations down the line.
so to me this clearly points out that the problem is local because i know my original queens where a gem to work with.
I believe that the only way to solve our problem is to get new queens every year unless we can hold on to the ones we have, on both occations it has come out of no where last year we were learning this year with the rain they went at the first chance with being couped up for so long.
It is in our interest that we find a way of doing this without spending lots of money, as queens are not alway acepted into a hive.
I am sure next year we will be able to give a heads up to how it all goes.
But i must point out that an evil strain of bee is a buggar to work with and we cannot continue to let this happen. good honey crop or not.

 

[madasafish]

Yes.

Thanks..

Beekeeping seems to abound with them - matchsticks for another

 

[Bryanthebee]

well folks what a bad year both of my hives are now queenless what is going on this year. requeen all ok, now 24 queen cells no queen. banging my head against a wall sounds good at the moment. fingers crossed for the last nuc. have a queen coming in the post from a good friend.

 

[Bryanthebee]

went to requeen tuesday and a queen has hatched and was out side the hive running round like a nutter then she returned to the hive.
on looking inside this hive that had 24 queen cells in, they had been all torn down thanks done me a favour, so found new unmated queen and squished here shook all remaining bee`s out on the floor so i could make sure all queens cells were torn down placed new mated queen in, in a cage and all the bee`s return into the hive in no time at all.
so fingers crossed the new queen will be released friday. The new queen should have a fighting chance due to the unmated queen was only there for a short amount of time.