Free sugar

[Little John]

There is a piece in The Guardian -
all that free publicity for "the environmentally-responsible supermarket" - for just the zero-cost of a few bags of spilt sugar. Bloody clever.
LJ

 

[Beefriendly]

Amm are Thrifty on their stores YES...... but......

Lighten up my friend.
Accept that whatever you are breeding aren't 100% pure..... When they start producing some serious notable honey crops and become more errhum manageable then perhaps people will start beating a path to your door.

Currently I have 2 nearly Amm queens generated from isolated matings, genome of their lineages puts them (by DNA analysis) at around 90-95% with some lingusta and carnica genes present (last I heard the Cornish bees were around 80%). Despite this introgression the nearly Amm's I have retain most of the characteristics described for the old English Black Bee small oval brood nest surrounded by stores and pollen, excellent white capping on their honey and black as the ace of spades. But I would never call them pure....whatever that means these days.
Down sides, chalkbrood in clubs!, And compared to equivalent sized colonies are poor at bringing in honey during a flow, My imported Carniolans and Buckfast wipe the floor with them in that aspect. Unlike little John the ones I have are excellent to work with, can't fault them on that. But I do hear from a few Cornish men that your "local" black bee has a bit of a reputation temper wise.

So please stop trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes. Honesty will do you and the local bee cause more good than harm. All we ever hear is hyperbole and little hard facts. We most certainly don't want the situation to develop into the Irish situation which, if rumors are true, involves shotguns and shooting hives of non local bees....
And all for a bee that only a dedicated few really want.
But if you would like some new "purer" bloodlines to introduce to your breeding program I shall happily donate the two queens I have to your cause.

 

[yeogi75]

the reason I have a gripe about black bees(amm) , is I started to keep bees just before my farther died ,myself and two others new there was black bees in Nottingham but none in Leicester of any note apart from late Dave Cushman in syston , so between us we brought a breeder queen between the three of us, then one of us decided to have some tested, well 74% pure was the outcome since then we have gone separate ways not thinking there was any point as there was not the interest then in amm, and without paper work nothing can traceable to there purity , so cannot sell if you cannot prove linage

 

[Quis Custodiet]

................We most certainly don't want the situation to develop into the Irish situation which, if rumors are true, involves shotguns and shooting hives of non local bees................

Not a rumour unfortunately, I shall send you details in private later.

 

[REDWOOD]

Great idea if you can make a case for supermarkets to give you free sugar, I only hope the sugar is indigenous to that area, we wouldn't like to upset the AMM followers

 

[Swarm]

Sigh .............

 

[For want of a better word]

Sigh .............

Sad in reality that any mention of native or even near native bees rallies a few little nasty trolls to post their often radicalised opinions!

Next thing will be some nere-do-well spouting off about New Zealand Italians not being true New Zealand bees .... sigh!

Nos da

 

[yeogi75]

Sad in reality that any mention of native or even near native bees rallies a few little nasty trolls to post their often radicalised opinions!

Next thing will be some nere-do-well spouting off about New Zealand Italians not being true New Zealand bees .... sigh!

Nos da

one thing im not a troll and the second im not a racist I like aliens coming in un like your self why are you trying to ram down our throats about black bees when most come from Ireland according to bibba

 

[Quis Custodiet]

Sad in reality that any mention of native or even near native bees rallies a few little nasty trolls to post their often radicalised opinions!....................
Nos da

The sad reality is, there are no Native Irish Black Bees in existence. The DNA testing, which was commissioned by the native bee society here, proves that. AMM bees certainly can be found here, but they are descended from bees imported from the continent in the 1920's or there about.
Being abusive to others does not alter that, but does weaken your case, as the same applies to AMM throughout these islands,

 

[For want of a better word]

Yawn.............
----------------

Nos da

 

[Quis Custodiet]

Yawn.............
----------------

Nos da

Instead of "Yawn", why not produce evidence of the existence of Native AMM in any part of Ireland or Britain?
Do it and at a stroke you will demolish completely my argument and the arguments of others like me.......should be worth doing to consolidate and further your cause?

 

[Swarm]

Here we go again

 

[For want of a better word]

Instead of "Yawn", why not produce evidence of the existence of Native AMM in any part of Ireland or Britain?
Do it and at a stroke you will demolish completely my argument and the arguments of others like me.......should be worth doing to consolidate and further your cause?

Look up B4 project.


No argument.


Sorry Swarm... I am fed up with the blatant trolling too!

Nos da

 

[Beefriendly]

Look up B4 project.

http://www.b4project.co.uk/
Interesting, it extols their pollen collection ability which is well known to be inversely related to honey collection.
Also says they are defensive against invaders such as wasps (I think they forget to add beekeepers here as well ......
Also says they have "careful measured maritime brood cycles"...what the eff is this.....related to the tides????Peed myself laughing at this. Can any pro Cornish Amm fan please please explain this....Come to think of it can anyone explain this!
And they have the inevitable "possible hardiness against varroa".
Shoot yourself in the foot.......
No wonder no intelligent beekeeper takes this stuff seriously.

There are only two certain things in beekeeping.
You can never match Finman's honey yields per hive and you can never believe ANYTHING that the native bee proponents advocate.
They seem unable to engage in any meaningful debate (sorry mate was thet your hive I blew up with me 12 bore) or can we queue up another round of those who don't understand us are trolls and add in a few yawns and few more yawns....

 

[Quis Custodiet]

Look up B4 project.


No argument.


Sorry Swarm... I am fed up with the blatant trolling too!

Nos da

Thank you for your kind suggestion, I will indeed look it up, hopefully it will answer, or go some way towards answering my question.
I am sorry if you feel I am being being belligerent, such is not my intention. I simply want an oft repeated and pertinent question answered.

 

[PBee]

So what ? .....

Considering the formation of a protected isolated area will pay far more dividends than quoting from an irrelevant paper.
LJ

It’s an example of assortative mating involving Amm with Amm having competitive advantage.

 

[PBee]

....
The Irish equivalent of the Nuremberg rallies is being staged in Athlone this weekend, by the Irish Native honey bee society. I am sure they will condemn the burning of hives, the violence and intimidation conducted by their zealot supporters. Just think and reflect on all the trouble that could be avoided if one native Irish honey bee could be produced for inspection. My sister has some friends who intend to go there, so one will hear what has been done.
.....

Are they wired?

 

[Quis Custodiet]

Are they wired?

Technology has moved on a little from that! The microphones on smart phones are incredibly sensitive and as everyone has such a phone, they are not noticed and can work in a handbag or pocket. Not that anyone with intelligence would be interested in listening to very much of what is likely to be said there. Their intention to split FIBKA is interesting and thus increase their membership many fold, this is very obvious to anyone who cares to take an overview. It is disturbing to see their gradual but steady advancement to this end and the impotence of FIBKA in stopping it.

 

[Stiffy]

I might (probably am) a bit dim but why are there 2 black bee groups (BIPCO and B4 Project) in Cornwall with supposedly the same aim?
Surely the aim of the groups is the same and would be better served by a single group?
Or is it politics, and the reason I don't get involved with groups anymore??
S

 

[simoncav]

Lighten up my friend.
Accept that whatever you are breeding aren't 100% pure..... When they start producing some serious notable honey crops and become more errhum manageable then perhaps people will start beating a path to your door.

Currently I have 2 nearly Amm queens generated from isolated matings, genome of their lineages puts them (by DNA analysis) at around 90-95% with some lingusta and carnica genes present (last I heard the Cornish bees were around 80%). Despite this introgression the nearly Amm's I have retain most of the characteristics described for the old English Black Bee small oval brood nest surrounded by stores and pollen, excellent white capping on their honey and black as the ace of spades. But I would never call them pure....whatever that means these days.
Down sides, chalkbrood in clubs!, And compared to equivalent sized colonies are poor at bringing in honey during a flow, My imported Carniolans and Buckfast wipe the floor with them in that aspect. Unlike little John the ones I have are excellent to work with, can't fault them on that. But I do hear from a few Cornish men that your "local" black bee has a bit of a reputation temper wise.

So please stop trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes. Honesty will do you and the local bee cause more good than harm. All we ever hear is hyperbole and little hard facts. We most certainly don't want the situation to develop into the Irish situation which, if rumors are true, involves shotguns and shooting hives of non local bees....
And all for a bee that only a dedicated few really want.
But if you would like some new "purer" bloodlines to introduce to your breeding program I shall happily donate the two queens I have to your cause.

If you have a problem with Chalkbrood, have you tried Poly hives? I just don't see it any more and I think its because the bees stay much warmer and dryer overall making it harder for a fungus infection to get a grip... Just a thought.