Buckfast Bees

[andycadman]

Have just requeened a hive with a Buckfast Queen. Then I came across this:

True Buckfast bees can be very gentle, but anyone who has experience of Buckies crossed out with certain other strains will know that they can be the nastiest bees on the block by some margin. Beginners who buy these nucs are going to find that out the hard way, when their bees supercede and suddenly turn bad on them, and have a serious stinging incident to deal with.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Am I creating trouble for my self in the future?

 

[BILL.HEARD]

Crossed my dark strain with Buckfast, they did very well, not difficult to handle and gave me good returns.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Have just requeened a hive with a Buckfast Queen. Then I came across this:

True Buckfast bees can be very gentle, but anyone who has experience of Buckies crossed out with certain other strains will know that they can be the nastiest bees on the block by some margin. Beginners who buy these nucs are going to find that out the hard way, when their bees supercede and suddenly turn bad on them, and have a serious stinging incident to deal with.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Am I creating trouble for my self in the future?

!'ll let you know as i have one just superseded

my view is that very few "buckfast" are true buckfast now,so the problem is not as it use to be with this designer bee

yes 2nd generation are more up at you but normal settle and you can get poor 3rd generation and down the line crosses but i have had worse crosses with hawiaiin and NZ Italian strains and local drones,

The mongrel buckfast crosses are less of a problem than imported eastern European Drones crosses

ok, now preparing to duck and be told off for using buckfast bees and not local bred bees

 

[Silly Bee]

How do you guarantee that your Buckfast doesn't mate with some "inferior" bee from the local bad guy site?

 

[Hivemaker.]

How do you guarantee that your Buckfast doesn't mate with some "inferior" bee from the local bad guy site?

Instrumental insemination.

 

[Silly Bee]

Ok, But I'll stick to mongrels, they are usually hardier.

 

[BKF Admin]

Have just requeened a hive with a Buckfast Queen. Then I came across this:

True Buckfast bees can be very gentle, but anyone who has experience of Buckies crossed out with certain other strains will know that they can be the nastiest bees on the block by some margin. Beginners who buy these nucs are going to find that out the hard way, when their bees supercede and suddenly turn bad on them, and have a serious stinging incident to deal with.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Am I creating trouble for my self in the future?

My opinion is that you have quoted a post made by Phil Chandler on the Omlet forum..
The problem when dealing with internet statements like the above is knowing if the original poster has a reason for posting such a statement,in this case its due to someone believing that the only way to keep bees is to use local bred queens that are kept in coffins(sorry TBH).

I am not saying their is anything wrong with Phils way of beekeeping,I just think you sometimes have to ask why statements are made.

As MM states above the problem is far more common with hawiaiin and NZ Italian strains and local drones.

 

[susbees]

Doesn't quite follow as didn't Phil inherit a load of the Buckfast Abbey hives complete with occupants?

 

[RoseCottage]

I have a buckfast cross with something I cannot pronounce beginning with C !!!
It is a year 1 queen and I ordered a nuc when I was at risk of being down to one hive. To be honest, I prefer to create queens from my own girls as I have only had really gentle results but I made a commitment when in crises and felt that I had to honour it.

My Buckfasts are ok but have a tendency to pour out the hive and one or two to follow and buzz me throughout inspection and until I walk away. My other girls just let me get on with things.

My feeling is to see how they behave this year and I may change queen next year to one of my own. I may also try and limit drones from the colony if they turn out to be stroppy later.

All the best,
Sam

 

[fincaazul]

Have just requeened a hive with a Buckfast Queen. Then I came across this:

True Buckfast bees can be very gentle, but anyone who has experience of Buckies crossed out with certain other strains will know that they can be the nastiest bees on the block by some margin. Beginners who buy these nucs are going to find that out the hard way, when their bees supercede and suddenly turn bad on them, and have a serious stinging incident to deal with.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Am I creating trouble for my self in the future?

We cannot be certain of what crosses will produce. I got my nuc from Fingringhoe Nature reserve last year and are really amenable. HOWEVER, guys were putting on supers on 4 colonies early April, I got stings on both ankles and through hat, despite walking away was 'followed' for over 400 yards. One guy stuck his head into a bush, the other got over 20 stings on his hands, they tell me that these are their most prductive colonies, no wonder, the bears, let alone the public, cannot get near them. Seem to manage on a place frquented by public, hope they do not need call on their Public Liabilty Insurance. Bees purchased from them are fine, so far

 

[drstitson]

rose cottage:

would that be buckfast x crecopia? Greek bees from B***********s?

 

[Norton]

Selected pure bred Buckfasts are very gentle and productive. I do not bother with any protective gear when I am in the apiaries. Even apiaries with over 100 hives. I usually only get stung when I make a mistake and squeeze/crush a bee.

If these bees are open- mated (this holds good for all strains by the way) and no selection is carried out then they will start resemble the bees in the general population of the area.

If you control the mating and mate Buckfasts to Buckfasts of course you get a Buckfast!

Best regards
Norton

 

[aberreef]

Instrumental insemination.

Can this be done by a hobbyist or does it require the use of a lab?

 

[RoseCottage]

Dr,
You are right they are just what you stated did you get some too?

At the time I ordered them I was hoping to ensure gentle bees that were not overly productive or swarmy...don't fancy struggling with bees all year round working out strategies for containment.

Not sure I got what I hoped for and have since learnt that my original colony seem capable of producing queens with gentle hives. I have travelled 2 generations from my original queen and it appears that her granddaughter is as gentle as she was. In the right conditions last year the original queen gave me 165lbs of honey too, but I don't need this every year.

All the best,
Sam

 

[andycadman]

Many thanks to all of you above.


This is the only way to check things out - from the expereince of other bee keepers. This is what makes this forum so valuable.

You can't belive everthing that you read on the Interent.

With out the use of AI, it is almost impossble for most amatuers to control which drones the virgin queen will meet on her mating flight.

(My queen came from H**** B** S*********).

 

[Hivemaker.]

(My queen came from H**** B** S*********)

A nice Greek queen then.

Aberreef, no you don't need a lab.

 

[andycadman]

VERY nice.

Re-queened originally last year with one, this hive has become a great success so far this year.

So I thought I would biuld a new colony with one this year . . . . . . . . . . then I saw that quote at the head of this thread!

. . . there comes a time when you have to let nature takes its course, that is what got me worried.

 

[Tom Bick]

(My queen came from H**** B** S*********).

Is that a blocked link or are you just keeping it under your hat lol.

Personally from what I have learned all the hybrid queens that are available that claim to be gentle and they are at first, most of them have problems with subsequent generations. Although it seems some are worse than others.

I guess that next year when I start my small scale queen rearing experiment I will fined that it will be a very mixed bag when it comes down to characteristics especially with the already mix of bees in West London.

 

[Juststarting]

I have a second generation buckfast and she is lovely, very prolific and very gentle bees. Other good tendencies that I wont list in case I tempt fate!

I like her so much I am trying to raise some queens from her, but have also bought in some more buckfast queens in case this fails and to head up other hives

 

[Max]

A friend of mine in our local bee society bought a Buckfast from greece which was fine, until they superseded and all hell broke loose. They turned into the most aggressive bees imaginable.

The only answer was the nuclear one. The hive was destroyed with every bee in it.

The answer to the problem is simple. Only buy queens that are local mongrels and you can't go far wrong.!!