Black Cornish Native bees of Rame

[For want of a better word]

Default BBC 1 Countryfile 7pm.
Quote:
Rame Peninsula
Countryfile

Ellie is on the Rame Peninsula - Cornwall's 'forgotten corner' - and visits Mount Edgcumbe, where the UK's first ever native dark honeybee reserve has just opened. Previously thought to be all but extinct in the UK, an almost pure and distinctive population has been identified on the Rame Peninsula, and although they make up only one per cent of the bee population, it is thought they might hold the key to more sustainable beekeeping - Ellie finds out how.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0959jmz

Deserves its own thread as many will not read Hivemakes post!

Kernow bys Vyken

Nos da

 

[Anduril]

It was worth watching.

 

[nantmoel]

I watched it and it was worth watching, but as the program was not dedicated to just bees it didn't really go into too much detail.

 

[For want of a better word]

Pity was that the BBC used a lot of stock footage of hybrid bees with nice little bright yellow stripes... expect a barrage of negative comments from the yellow bee fanatics and naysayers.

Most of the Countryfile audience would probably not notice the difference!!!

Nos da

 

[Hivemaker.]

Nice looking beehives.

 

[nantmoel]

Nice looking beehives.

I take it you supplied them! lol

 

[enrico]

As stated, pity they talked about black bees but most of the shots were not black bees, a little confusing!
E

 

[Beefriendly]

.. expect a barrage of negative comments from the yellow bee fanatics and naysayers.

If you keep setting yourself up to be(e) attacked then so be it....
Not from me...any bee publicity is good, honey sales should rocket this month. Thank you CF.....New fancy expensive equipment to be bought.

 

[B+.]

Nice looking beehives.

Not many bees in them though. The clip showing colony assessment looked like a nuc with brand new empty frames either side

 

[Beefriendly]

Hey, this is television, when has it born any resemblance to reality?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Not many bees in them though.

There were no bees at all in them up until May, expect the new nucs arrived shortly after, followed by the film crew a short while later.

Looked like nice bees, don't know why the keepers were wearing bee suits though.

 

[Beefriendly]

There were no bees at all in them up until May, expect the new nucs arrived shortly after, followed by the film crew a short while later.

Looked like nice bees, don't know why the keepers were wearing bee suits though.

Wasson me cock...me suspect they be Cornish Amm's... most unwelcoming to visitors.

 

[B+.]

Hey, this is television, when has it born any resemblance to reality?

It would be nice if it did.

 

[Beefriendly]

yes that would be Poldark...

 

[beeno]

As stated, pity they talked about black bees but most of the shots were not black bees, a little confusing!
E

Just what I expected. Nice Carnies as well especially the queen.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

There were no bees at all in them up until May, expect the new nucs arrived shortly after, followed by the film crew a short while later.

Looked like nice bees, don't know why the keepers were wearing bee suits though.

Maybe the health and safety man on the production team remembered the Julia Bradbury incident 4 years ago on Countryfile when she got stung on the eyelid while inspecting Natural Bees - "they will not hurt you, they love you" said the beekeeper, immediately followed by the sting.

Nice hives, Hm - Jo and Nick are showing them off to our local MP in 3 weeks - they might mention the bees too!

CVB

 

[REDWOOD]

Not what I was expecting to see, or was I. I would like to know what percentage of AMM genes do hybrids have.

Still nice to see passionate beekeepers and County File is still one of my favorite programs

 

[mbc]

Met a lively fella called Andrew Abrahams up in Llangollen a year or two ago who might dispute the "first ever" claim as he's the beekeeper on oransay and colansay in the western Isles which is an amm reserve, still in the uk last time I checked (until you brexit clowns force them on their own path!)

 

[For want of a better word]

Nice looking beehives.

Paid for by a grant to B4 we should add!

In our breeding program we use stock bees that indeed may be from a hybrid colony to make up nucs. The colony providing the bees is prepped by carrying out what I call ad 1/2 AS ( Artificial Swarm) ie the bees are shaken off the comb with their queen into a new box on the original stance, a queen excluder is placed over the new box of frames plus all the bees from the colony and the old box containing all of brood food etc.
In 24 hours all of the nurse bees and workers move up onto the old comb, leaving the queen plus drones and many workers in the new bottom box.

Nucs are made up using the strained bees, care is taken not to transferr any drone brood. Three to four nuc boxes can be made up from one colony this way with frames of stores and pollen donated from other colonies.
The original donor colony is reassembled with at least one frame of brood and any drone brood.
The nucs are fed and set aside for four days at which point any queen cells being made are removed.

A mated Native dark queen that has already been assessed as being Amm is introduced to the nuc, either run in with a spray of rosemary water directly onto the frame, or via an introduction cage ( next season I will try the press in cage system) The nuc queen excluder position is selected.
The nuc is checked for queenrightness and laying pattern before being transported to its new location.In 2-3 weeks the nucs are checked again for laying pattern, and will be ready to move to hives as the old hybrid bee new brood will be filling the box to capacity and new Amm brood beng capped.

Thus a new colony will have the appearance of being a hybrid, but as the original cohort of hybrids die off they are replaced by Native dark bees and the colony looks as it should!

Perhaps this goes some way as to explain our methodology and why perhaps the colony at the ( very) new Mt Edgecumbe apiary had the appearance as being a hybrid.

I look forward to the day when I can use the valuable local Cornish Amm stock to make up nucs... but as for now we have to utilise hybrids as surrogates to get the numbers up! ( our breeding stock originated on Rame)


Yeghes da

 

[For want of a better word]

Met a lively fella called Andrew Abrahams up in Llangollen a year or two ago who might dispute the "first ever" claim as he's the beekeeper on oransay and colansay in the western Isles which is an amm reserve, still in the uk last time I checked (until you brexit clowns force them on their own path!)

Some would say that it is the first MAINLAND reserve... others that Cornwall is not part of the UK!!



Yeghes da