NHS 2019 videos

[drex]

Have just seen that a lot of last years national honey show videos have been posted on YouTube.
Just watched " basic genetics for bee keepers". It is hardly " basic" but is fascinating and he makes a very strong case for keeping locally adapted bees. This should please the BBKA and may cause furore from some on here. Has given me loads of food for thought. I have always raised my own queens, but will be giving more thought to the process of selection

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Thanks for pointing out that these had been uploaded. Watched the genetics one. I'm now frowning and my head hurts!

 

[Newbeeneil]

If you want a very amusing lecture that won't tax you try How Bees Fly Simon Rees

 

[MartinL]

. . . he makes a very strong case for keeping locally adapted bees.

I would have thought it was obvious that anything "locally adapted" is very likely to perform better than that which has not adapted.

Of course, if you support the flat earth society...………………… ?

 

[SDM]

Perform better at what ?

 

[madasafish]

Perform better at what ?

Surviving without varroa treatment - based on the large scale study I read..(approx 600 hives).

Bee temper,fecundity,frugality, honey output - all irrelevant to the study.


And in anothr context, the best car to drive is the one that lasts longest without maintenance.......emissions, fuel consumption, ease of parking and comfort are irrelevant..

 

[drex]

I would guess that the bees would gauge good performance as being successful setting up of a new colony after swarming! The opposite of what we want, whatever parameters float our boat

 

[For want of a better word]

Have just seen that a lot of last years national honey show videos have been posted on YouTube.
Just watched " basic genetics for bee keepers". It is hardly " basic" but is fascinating and he makes a very strong case for keeping locally adapted bees. This should please the BBKA and may cause furore from some on here. Has given me loads of food for thought. I have always raised my own queens, but will be giving more thought to the process of selection

Here is the link to John Chamber's lecture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pAQt6pFhM&feature=youtu.be

Level headed reasoning to keep locally adapted bees and has changed my thoughts on buying boxes of bees from Southern Italy or Buckfast queens bred in Greece or even Malta!

 

[SDM]

I would guess that the bees would gauge good performance as being successful setting up of a new colony after swarming! The opposite of what we want, whatever parameters float our boat

Theres no evidence of that in the study mentioned above. All the bees died, tbe locals just lasted a few days longer. In short they showed some resistance to the local virus variants. However given the immune priming response, there is no reason to think this disadvantage would apply to the colonies of queens raised in the locality, whatever their mothers origin.
Which is of course good news for any importing breeder queens, they can continue knowing the colonies of daughter queens should have the same immunity as the locals

 

[SDM]

Surviving without varroa treatment - based on the large scale study I read..(approx 600 hives).

Bee temper,fecundity,frugality, honey output - all irrelevant to the study.


And in anothr context, the best car to drive is the one that lasts longest without maintenance.......emissions, fuel consumption, ease of parking and comfort are irrelevant..

All true, but worse than that it was really only a partial study. Only 2 of the non local subspecies were trialled at each location, the other 10 were not.
Given that at 1 of the sites the non local bees performed better than the locals, there's every reason to believe that 1 or more of the 10 not tested strains could have outperformed the locals at every site

 

[madasafish]

All true, but worse than that it was really only a partial study. Only 2 of the non local subspecies were trialled at each location, the other 10 were not.
Given that at 1 of the sites the non local bees performed better than the locals, there's every reason to believe that 1 or more of the 10 not tested strains could have outperformed the locals at every site

Well errr my local experience is that the bees I have reared ("bred" is too strong a word) from bought in bees - all UK reared but certainly not local- are better tempered and yielding than the local bees and fewer winter losses as well.

I would like to ascribe that to my bee rearing but there are so many variables - hive insulation, quality of care etc - I cannot . And I don't/can't claim to be a better beekeeper either

Must be luck..

 

[SDM]

Well errr my local experience is that the bees I have reared ("bred" is too strong a word) from bought in bees - all UK reared but certainly not local- are better tempered and yielding than the local bees and fewer winter losses as well.
..

No surprise to me.
Mind you, Personally, I'd consider anywhere in the U.K. to be "local".
I know that doesn't tie in with the current definition of local that seems to governed by local association boundaries, but there you go.

 

[Repwoc]

Here is the link to John Chamber's lecture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pAQt6pFhM&feature=youtu.be

Level headed reasoning to keep locally adapted bees ...

But he also pointed out that current beekeeping practices mean natural selection pressure is removed, ie the bees are adapted to being molycoddled by the beekeeper, not necessarily the locale.

I still wouldn't import boxes of bees from Italy, though, because of the risk of importing SHB too, however small the risk may be.

 

[Anduril]

Here is the link to John Chamber's lecture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-pAQt6pFhM&feature=youtu.be

Level headed reasoning to keep locally adapted bees and has changed my thoughts on buying boxes of bees from Southern Italy or Buckfast queens bred in Greece or even Malta!

Well done to John Chambers for responding in the comments section. The other comments brought a smile to my face.

 

[domino]

I was at that genetics talk, some people weren't happy that their pet strain didn't score well. I've only ever had two strains ones I like and angry little *******s.

 

[mbc]

Excellent presentation, I particularly liked the bell curve explanation and the idea of the drones holding the genetic wealth of a population, thanks for the heads up.

 

[mazzamazda]

For those of you who bought the book Honeybees of the british isles cooper beowulf

What do you think? I'm a little sceptical buying a book out of print and will probably come back in print for £50 when the list price is £9

 

[Beefriendly]

It's a nice work of fiction......
Thrown mine on floor several times at some of the claimed "facts".

 

[For want of a better word]

Excellent presentation, I particularly liked the bell curve explanation and the idea of the drones holding the genetic wealth of a population, thanks for the heads up.

One little pointer.
Talking to one very well respected beeboffin at the yacht club last evening, mentioning the genetic study of the Cornish native black bees ( Apis mellifera mellifera) the C group introgertion could have been either Carniolian OR Ligurian and not just Carniolian as Mr Chambers said in his lecture.

I am going to join BIBBA

 

[mazzamazda]

It's a nice work of fiction......
Thrown mine on floor several times at some of the claimed "facts".

Yes I did wonder, thanks, I wont bother....