Carniolan

[chrysalis]

Hello

I have been offered a nuc of Carniolan bees. Does anyone have any info on these bees or experiences with them.

Our bees now are buckfast/danish and are lovely, so calm and a joy to work with.

All information greatly appreciated.

Chrysalis

 

[Black Comb]

I've had a carni colony for a year.
Gentle and easy to work, good for beginners.
Like to build up brood but not so sure about honey.

Swarmy - and yes the 2nd year queen has swarmed already.

 

[MathJ]

Are swarmy, need plenty of space to build up in spring, calm bees.

 

[MuswellMetro]

I've had a carni colony for a year.
Gentle and easy to work, good for beginners.
Like to build up brood but not so sure about honey.

Swarmy - and yes the 2nd year queen has swarmed already.

agree and they have been very difficult this year to stop swarming. Our beginers had them last year..typical scenerio with the beginers this year is a prime swarm and one or two caste swarms per hive, even with tight swarm control they hid the QCells or swarmed after AS...

the Nucs from the caste taken on the 1st May hatched a QCs at day 35 and swarmed ...my fault i was feeding 1:1 with VitC/lemon oil and the OSR flow came it heavy....i am going to requeen ...anything that is free has its difficuties

Another taken as a QC fron a diffrent hive on 24 April has had a swarm and two castes and that was not fed just left to get on with it three miles away!!!

 

[VEG]

They also produce lots of honey (they do in my case)

 

[grizzly]

those i had went off like rockets, and they were good to work, i had a lot of honey from them in the first year.
The following spring however someone flicked a switch, and they became quite aggressive, but this could have been down to a number of reasons.

The hive of bees i am looking after for the National Trust have a mix of NZ & Carni, and i can tell straight away which bees are which without looking at them.

Like most things you have to try them out, and most people seem to have positive experiences.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

They also produce lots of honey (they do in my case)

If you can get them to stay in the hive!

 

[chrysalis]

Wow, thanks for the replies guys!!! it looks like I'm going to have my hands full lol!! all good practise eh?

 

[Mike a]

Wow, thanks for the replies guys!!! it looks like I'm going to have my hands full lol!! all good practise eh?

Welcome to the forums Chrysalis

Heres the info I found before I got my first Carni's

The Carniolan bee
The subspecies A. m. carnica, from middle Europe, also has been a favored bee stock in the U.S. for several reasons. First, their explosive spring buildup enables this race to grow rapidly in population and take advantage of blooms that occur much earlier in the spring, compared to other stocks. Second, they are extremely docile and can be worked with little smoke and protective clothing. Third, they are much less prone to robbing other colonies of honey, lowering disease transmission among colonies. Finally, they are very good builders of wax combs, which can be used for products ranging from candles, to soaps, to cosmetics.
Because of their rapid buildup, however, carniolan bees tend to have a high propensity to swarm (their effort to relieve overcrowding) and, therefore, may leave the beekeeper with a very poor honey crop. This stock requires continued vigilance to prevent the loss of swarms.

However my Carni's didn't read all of this, I started part way through the season with a 5 frame nuc and they filled a 14x12 hive and part filled a super despite the weather and managed to store enough in the brood chamber so I didn't need to feed them.
Original queen was superseded late in the year and they weren't as calm and gentle after that although very hard working still.

 

[chrysalis]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the info. The Carnis are doing just as you found, got them half way through the season they filled the brood box so we added a super (brood and half) they are still bringing in the pollen even though July has been wet and windy. Onwards and upwards!!

 

[Stiffy]

I find it interesting that Carnies are recommended as easy to keep and for new beeks. I guess that if a new beek has them they will either learn swarm control or lose the lot!

My Carnies have spent the year producing queen cells and when not split swarmed when on the 4th Frame of brood. I am now re-queening as qucikly as possible.

For a new beek I certainly wouldnt recommend Carnies and would advise waiting until you can get some local bees or ones that are less swarmy. However this is not always posible and I understand the desire to try them.

 

[kazmcc]

Yikes! Our bees are Carnis......but we do have Paul and he knows what he's doing. They were bought off the local bee inspector, and they all know the project we are doing very intimately so I trust them, after all, they are the experts.

Our bees are very pretty. They are quite dark, with very little yellow, the bands are light and shallow. I've never seen such dark bees

Paul did say he intended us to have 3 hives on the site...maybe this is his way of doing that, cheaply lol

 

[Hebeegeebee]

I had a Carni queen last year, daughter from a swarm I caught. She swarmed this year when there was plenty of space (clipped so retained the bees), her daughter swarmed this year when there was plenty of space(clipped so retained the bees). Been combined with another hive now.
No more Carni's for me.