Buying some new queens

[Swarm]

Graham,
You are closer than I am

 

[colinc]

So hopit has his Mt. Edgcumbe reserve and objects to non natives, you want your local village breeds that you are happy with but others take location out of the equation by going for isolated exmoor/Dartmoor mating or island mating. All different ways of getting the same result but only the one group accepts that the neighbours bees will affect their blood line and avoids the situation rather than change the neighbours.

If you are happy good luck to you but picking arguments with people many miles away who don’t have that option seems strange to me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Eyeman]

I've been told by the heads of my local association and ex head/ current technical officerof the national association that "real bees should sting" I've handled one of the colonies they use for beginners splits, I was up to about a dozen stings when he said to close it. I offered to find and cull the queen when he told me he wanted it for splits. It's either side of their home apiary that I can't allow any queens to mate oddly enough.

They weren't Wally's little darlings?

 

[Beefriendly]

No doubt you would, I'm never surprised by your replies.

I asked a simple question, do I take it that you think it would be a good idea?

Yes my replies are usually accurate and to the point, thank you.
I do believe I answered your second question in the reply after that. Make of it what you will, you usually do.
But to clarify ....if you want to keep pure strains pure, or cross promising drones and virgins for improvement regardless, you need isolated mating stations or II. Anything else is just pissing up a stick and hoping it doesn't run back down your sleeve. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't...and the problem on the next cross on a promising line is you're back to pissing up the stick again.

 

[colinc]

Yes my replies are usually accurate and to the point, thank you.
I do believe I answered your second question in the reply after that. Make of it what you will, you usually do.
But to clarify ....if you want to keep pure strains pure, or cross promising drones and virgins for improvement regardless, you need isolated mating stations or II. Anything else is just pissing up a stick and hoping it doesn't run back down your sleeve. Sometimes you get lucky sometimes you don't...and the problem on the next cross on a promising line is you're back to pissing up the stick again.

How come I didn’t think to phrase it like that?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Beefriendly]

I've been told by the heads of my local association and ex head/ current technical officerof the national association that "real bees should sting" .

After one of our nearby associations talks a few years ago I was perturbed to hear the members trying to out brag each other as to whose bees were the more vicious.
Millet can confirm...he got his first bees from one of their members.

 

[Beefriendly]

How come I didn’t think to phrase it like that?

Cos you are far too polite

 

[Anduril]

Graham,
You are closer than I am

Steve sadly I got the OS map out and did an as the crow flies your home apiary works out at 7 miles and I am 7 3/4 miles, so not much in it LOL. Also I have a commercial beekeeper between me and those other bees. When I get round to it I may try AMM, but that will be in a few years time. For now I am mentoring a neighbour, I haven't dismissed it.

 

[Beefriendly]

No doubt you would, I'm never surprised by your replies.

I asked a simple question, do I take it that you think it would be a good idea?

Swarm, perhaps you would like to describe and tell us about the sort(s) of bees you keep? You constantly and frequently criticize others for expressing their opinion about the types they keep. Yet you seem reluctant to let us know what you keep.
I'll bet you do what you always do when asked a direct question about your bees.......ignore it

 

[SDM]

They weren't Wally's little darlings?

Could be. I've never used so much smoke. Felt like a lion tamer wafting the thing around.

 

[colinc]

Could be. I've never used so much smoke. Felt like a lion tamer wafting the thing around.

That’s what my second crosses tend towards. I won’t make the mistake of giving them an F number for fear of upsetting Beefriendly


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Beefriendly]

That’s what my second crosses tend towards. I won’t make the mistake of giving them an F number for fear of upsetting Beefriendly

You won't.... I'm simply trying to sort out that we are all singing from the same Welsh Chapel (lit with beeswax candles) hymn sheet.

 

[birdsandbees]

Yes I know Amm exist in localised pockets in isolated locations due to geography. Not a chance of anyone keeping them true breeding near me.

Well, as I'm in the same county I guess I'll have to just prove you wrong then.

 

[Anduril]

Swarm, perhaps you would like to describe and tell us about the sort(s) of bees you keep? You constantly and frequently criticize others for expressing their opinion about the types they keep. Yet you seem reluctant to let us know what you keep.
I'll bet you do what you always do when asked a direct question about your bees.......ignore it

The information of the bees he keeps are included in this thread and other threads earlier this year. The expression hidden in plain sight comes to mind.

 

[Beefriendly]

The information of the bees he keeps are included in this thread .

Sorry but can't find that info...nearest I get is if Swarm is buying them in from a reliable queen breeder but a stone's throw over the border in Ceredigion.
Not trying to be confrontational...but what sort(s)do you keep and how do you find them?
I'll bet, like I replied to Swarm, you'll both decline to answer. Or will obfuscate in a different direction.
Please prove me wrong.

 

[Anduril]

Sorry but can't find that info...nearest I get is if Swarm is buying them in from a reliable queen breeder but a stone's throw over the border in Ceredigion.
Not trying to be confrontational...but what sort(s)do you keep and how do you find them?
I'll bet, like I replied to Swarm, you'll both decline to answer. Or will obfuscate in a different direction.
Please prove me wrong.

LOL. Look at replies 10, 11 and 13. As to the bees I keep, local mongrels that I never have to feed and Buckfast for their gentle behaviour which are on private land. I hope that satisfies. You appear to have forgotten my replies in other threads regarding what I keep.

 

[colinc]

Well, as I'm in the same county I guess I'll have to just prove you wrong then.

What is it with the topic of native/local/Amm that brings out the keyboard warrior in people? Even after I state that I can see both sides of the argument despite not being feasible for me to “rear local”.

Here is the context.

I have between 2 and 4 colonies at the bottom of my garden. I do this for fun. I have 2 young children and a wife that likes to garden. I keep bees in that garden (it was my wife’s idea) and could not keep them away from home because in a quiet week I work 50-60 hours away from home. When I am home my time is occupied by my wife, young children and my wife’s grandmother who lives with us due to age and health. I am within flying distance of a 250 hive owners Buckfast Queen rearing colony.

If any anti Buckfast/Import/non local Beek would care to inform me how to keep surplus honey producing, calm, placid, true breeding Native/Local bees that fit that situation, then I am all ears.

If you can’t do that, stop attacking me for pointing out that the views of the native brigade (because that is how you are behaving) and the views of the militant Queen buyers are mutually exclusive, you will find no common ground and the two cannot co exist happily ( I am not firmly in either camp, if I lived on Colonsay, or any of the other places I mentioned earlier and stood a chance of drone flooding or I didn’t have to worry about aggression through having an out apiary then I would get some Amm/locals). In my location, local bees will not breed true, nothing will, not even Buckie’s. That was my only statement and this thread is proving that over and over local proponents and importers will never play nicely together, even to the point where I get repeatedly attacked for saying that just as swarm believes he has a location and strain worth preserving, some of us and it is a lot of us, have no chance of breeding anything other than honey munching pit bulls.

Each to their own, you will just have to let that lie.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Swarm]

Swarm, perhaps you would like to describe and tell us about the sort(s) of bees you keep? You constantly and frequently criticize others for expressing their opinion about the types they keep. Yet you seem reluctant to let us know what you keep.
I'll bet you do what you always do when asked a direct question about your bees.......ignore it

Oh please, stop getting all 'tough guy' it only makes me laugh. Find some posts where I CONSTANTLY CRITICISE OTHERS FOR EXPRESSING AN OPINION. (Love the description btw, expressing an opinion, lol)
You'll find plenty where I defend my choice against you lot but good luck.
Anduril answered you in the meanwhile, sorry but I don't live at my keyboard but I notice you got all 'hard guy' there as well.

 

[Beefriendly]

As I said Swarm you wouldn't answer the question and obfuscate.
You proved me right.
Tough guy me!
LOL

 

[Beefriendly]

You appear to have forgotten my replies in other threads regarding what I keep.

Thanks for the reply, yes I can't remember everything that everyone writes.