Can Bee species really be so different?

[CaptainCymru]

Got two hives at the moment,both quite strong , 1 is a "dark" bee from a swarm I caught and the other is Buckfast. The dark hive is non stop rammed at the entrance and still plenty of traffic even now , the buckfast hive is silent as the grave , the odd forager coming and going. Both have been treated for varroa and both look healthy with plenty stores, just the dark bees seem very busy compared!

 

[StephenT]

I actually looked at all 3 hives this morning when it was drizzling and my Greater London Mishmash Mongrels were flying whereas my namby pamby 2nd generation Buckfast were not coming out.

 

[Erichalfbee]

They are the same species. Apis mellifera
However in my limited experience my Buckies are lazier than my little black bees. In a good year the orange bees excel and far outperform the blackuns. In a bad year the black bees do better than the orange ones

 

[Ian123]

It’s simple really the more prolific/numerous bees take advantage of forage when available. In times of shortage your still feeding the workforce. As to those that forage in lower temps I always find a difference even in an apiary of the same strain. Some benefit from direct sun others are larger in numbers, some may even have found a source others have not.

 

[Finman]

It depends, do you really know , what the colony does when it flyes in rain! When I look British forecasts, your temperatures are so low, that flowers do not make nectar. And if nectar is wet, bees do not forage it.

What bees do in bad weather, they bring water to make food juice to larvi.

When I compare your writings about your busy bees and annual yield, there is something odd in these stories. My experiences say, that you have out there so much colonies per pastures, that flowers cannot give food to such amount of bees.

I just took away the crop from one Italian hive, perhaps crossed with buckfast, and there was 80 kg capped honey. Most of honey must be aphid products from trees. Hot summer killed the flowers.

According you busy bees raports, you should get 150 kg - 300 kg honey per hive. They gather even in December yield in low 6C temperatures. My bees get honey over 20C temps.

I have kept German black bees 30 years. I know what they do. Their biggest problem is that they swarm, and a swarm cannot forage much honey. Carniolan has as bad swarming problem. There are Italian varietes too, which have 100% swarming. If you do not select them, and do not renew your bees, so will happen to all bee breeds.

I have tried Buckfasts, but difficulty is that, buckfast genes vanished in 3 years. After two open mating they are not any more Buckfast.
They are cross bred what ever. Buckfast hive is too tall to me to nurse, even if it makes huge yields.

That I have leaned in 60 years beekeeping, that my own bees are the best in the world. It is same with your home grown potatoes. Nothing is so good as my own potatoes.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

SWMBO always raves about my spuds to be honest. She can never wait to get her hands on them

 

[Ian123]

SWMBO always raves about my spuds to be honest. She can never wait to get her hands on them

I take it the slow gin trials are going well then

 

[Finman]

I have had bee races:

-Black bees, more or less mongrels
- Caucasian bees ( very lazy, big hives, origin from Canada 50 y ago)
- Numerous Italian breeds
- Elgon
- Buckfasts
- Carniolan breeds, many
- Mongrels
- Local bees
- Foreign bees

Local bees are the worst = Unselected mongrels. But you cannot select local bees. I do not know how to select them. I have tried.

 

[Finman]

How bees are very busy? One explanation is, that they are robbing somebody else's hives when they have feeding.

 

[CaptainCymru]

How bees are very busy? One explanation is, that they are robbing somebody else's hives when they have feeding.

No they are heavy with pollen , the difference is they are flying in the cold rainy temperature

 

[Ian123]

Not many plants around me that produce copious amounts of pollen in damp wet conditions.

 

[Finman]

No they are heavy with pollen , the difference is they are flying in the cold rainy temperature

I have not met such feature in breeding bees like " flying in the cold rainy temperature".

I have met a writing about bees' instinct to gather pollen, and the diffence can be used in selection.

When I had Elgon bees, they were huge to collect pollen. But with crossings with Italians they turned quite evil.

I mean actually, that it is difficult to doom bee breeds with one feature. Breeding and selecting needs much more than that.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Not many plants around me that produce copious amounts of pollen in damp wet conditions.

Its bright yellow whatever it is!

 

[Swarm]

It's Ivy I expect, great how they manage to find it though, isn't it?

 

[Patrick1]

Yesterday I had a quick look at my bees impromptu and without a veil black bee breeders and one Buckfast, the black bees are really active like a motorway rush hour lots of pollen coming in, the Buckfast quiet except for catching me on the eye, nose and ear, lots of water being collected, many on the ground after the rain collecting.

 

[Swarm]

Patrick? Now you knew that was not a good idea at the time, right?
I've been looking at the washed out Ivy these past few days but at the apiary it's still coming in. No idea how they do it but I'm always impressed.

Eye, nose and ear? Hope it's not too painful.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I've been looking at the washed out Ivy these past few days but at the apiary it's still coming in. No idea how they do it but I'm always impressed.

I was thinking the same - my theory is that because ivy is often climbing the trunks of trees it is protected from the worst of the rain by the canopy.

 

[Finman]

I wonder the start of this discussion.
Why dark bees fly an the rain and buckfast does not.

Actually question should be, why dark bee forages pollen in rain weather and buckfast does not.

I do not know. Not a smallest idea.
At least we got an answer to the first guestion, why his dark bees flyes in the rain.

And the original question, can the the bees be so different.

It seems, that they can. One queen mates with 15 drones, and one hive use to be a mixture of different bees.


When sperm developes in a human, chromosemes devide and pieces of chromosemes change their place in the cross over, one human dad can have 1000 different sperm genome alternative. No wonder that human children in the family are different.

 

[Patrick1]

Patrick? Now you knew that was not a good idea at the time, right?
I've been looking at the washed out Ivy these past few days but at the apiary it's still coming in. No idea how they do it but I'm always impressed.

Eye, nose and ear? Hope it's not too painful.

I will live, lack of joined up brain cells is the problem

 

[Curly green finger's]

I was thinking the same - my theory is that because ivy is often climbing the trunks of trees it is protected from the worst of the rain by the canopy.

I wonder the start of this discussion.
Why dark bees fly an the rain and buckfast does not.

Actually question should be, why dark bee forages pollen in rain weather and buckfast does not.

I do not know. Not a smallest idea.
At least we got an answer to the first guestion, why his dark bees flyes in the rain.

And the original question, can the the bees be so different.

It seems, that they can. One queen mates with 15 drones, and one hive use to be a mixture of different bees.


When sperm developes in a human, chromosemes devide and pieces of chromosemes change their place in the cross over, one human dad can have 1000 different sperm genome alternative. No wonder that human children in the family are different.

I've got it? bucks are kept in bigger boxes and on bigger frames sooooo! They have more pollen and honey stored no need to forage, they can sit back consume and look on watching the black girls with a rye I told you so grin.