NZ Carniolan

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grizzly

Drone Bee
Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
1,103
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Location
Hampshire
Hive Type
Langstroth
Number of Hives
6
I requeened 4 colonies last spring with NZ Carni queens, purchased on the south coast, i guess imported originally, but those i bought were raised here.

Anyway, i worked them in a veil, shorts, tshirt, no gloves, they had a super temperament, expanded rapidly to fill the brood box and brought in my largest crop yet, however only 1 remains and they are 50/50, only grapefruit size patches of brood, considering its warming nicely during the day i expect a more rapid increase than experienced.

They were strong going into winter, however 2 of them have been lost to Nosema this year, 1 died out, cause unknown, and the one above as i say looks to be failing.

Such a shame that they can perform as they did in their first year, and all but die off as they start the second, has anyone else experienced these ? and have they failed this spring ?

They seem overly susceptible to Varroa and Nosema, whereas my local bees at my other apiary are free from Varroa and are clear from Nosema.
 
I think you have already worked out from experience what some imported blood lines can be like..
 
They seem overly susceptible to Varroa and Nosema, whereas my local bees at my other apiary are free from Varroa and are clear from Nosema.

Bees which are free from varroa and clear of Nosema? I am not sure how well this claim stacks up, and this undermines your other 'assumptions'.
 
They were strong going into winter, however 2 of them have been lost to Nosema this year, 1 died out, cause unknown, and the one above as i say looks to be failing.

Such a shame that they can perform as they did in their first year, and all but die off as they start the second

I think most people's bees have had a very tough Winter. I think we get an over rosie impression because beekeepers are keen to brag about their colonies having wall to wall brood, and quieter about the ones that have come out of Winter sickly or not at all.

On the other hand I think we would be better off if more people would rear local queens... but it is easy and wrong to blame people for importing when most people won't even try. Bad luck.
 
Bees which are free from varroa and clear of Nosema? I am not sure how well this claim stacks up, and this undermines your other 'assumptions'.

Ok by clear from nosema I mean they have been tested and are clear, I realise all bees carry it.

But the local colony do not currently have any mite drop, so either treatments and long winter has done them in or they just have not got going yet. After the start I have had this year you must forgive me for clutching on to every small positive sign.
 
Sorry to hear of your losses grizzly but we tried some imported queens in the second year to re-queen and found a similar situation, built well, good foragers and calm but sadly they just didnt seem to go through the winter and although a wet winter most died off.
That's what led us to rear our own queens in 2009 and i am led to believe from beeks feedback this year that our queens are on double brood boxes and doing well. I think its proof enough that locally bred queens are far better at coping with our weather and climate.
Today we are off to graft and our first batch of 2010 queens will be ready in the next few weeks. Some may argue that we are off too early but the colony has 9 frames of brood and doing well with plenty of drones around. The weather is perfect today what more could we ask for a good day of beekeeping!
We'll post the results of accepted grafts on Tuesday.
 
I bottled up the last of last years honey yesterday, to be sold, this will fund my restocking with bees from down Devon way.
Get some strength back into my colonies.
 
Don't you think from your experience that you would be better with a strain of bee more suited to our shores ie.. A.M.M.

Busy Bee
 
Don't you think from your experience that you would be better with a strain of bee more suited to our shores ie.. A.M.M.

Busy Bee


Try and find someone to supply you with some.....
 
Where are you getting your bees from in Devon?


Hi Red Bee

I have bees coming from two sources, first lot i am buying myself these will be from Hivemaker, so as native and as strong as you can possibly get.

One other Nuc is being purchased by Innocent Drinks for the NT/BBC Project, these are being supplied by National Bee Supplies.
 
http://www.bees.me.uk/Bees/Buy_queens.html

Morphological character of the dark bee

The dark native honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, is defined by having a cubital index of no more than 1.9 and a discoidal shift angle of less than zero degrees (a minus reading).

The average results are:

Cubital index 1.48

Discoidal shift -5.50 degrees


This shows very clearly that the purity of these bees is at the highest end of the scale. The average results for most dark bees tend to be in the region of:


Cubital index 1.72


Discoidal shift -2.40 degrees





In Carniolan & Italian bees the the averages are:


Cubital index higher than 2.4


Discoidal shift higher than zero degrees (a plus reading)



I hope this answers your question.


Busy Bee

P.S. The information comes from the site link.
 
Last edited:
I have recorded a Discoidal shift of 10+ or should that be more than minus ten...

Just thought to mention that...

PH
 
If its above zero not A.M.M., so +10 would suggest nothing in the same region of a A.M.M.

Busy Bee
 
Busy Bee
You need to get out more dude !!.

(Just Kidding):)
 
I requeened 4 colonies last spring with NZ Carni queens, purchased on the south coast, i guess imported originally, but those i bought were raised here.

Anyway, i worked them in a veil, shorts, tshirt, no gloves, they had a super temperament, expanded rapidly to fill the brood box and brought in my largest crop yet, however only 1 remains and they are 50/50, only grapefruit size patches of brood, considering its warming nicely during the day i expect a more rapid increase than experienced.

They were strong going into winter, however 2 of them have been lost to Nosema this year, 1 died out, cause unknown, and the one above as i say looks to be failing.

Such a shame that they can perform as they did in their first year, and all but die off as they start the second, has anyone else experienced these ? and have they failed this spring ?

They seem overly susceptible to Varroa and Nosema, whereas my local bees at my other apiary are free from Varroa and are clear from Nosema.

Seems to be a trait with these Bees, I know of someone else that had 120llbs of honey last year off one single Hive to find just a small cluster of Bees at the end of the winter. They are now in a Nuc box!

I would love to have some native blacks that showed good handling etc ect instead of my Italian strain of Bees. Maybe someone can point me in the direction of getting a good queen?
 
Please read again Busy.

I have recorded a Discoidal shift of 10+ or should that be more than minus ten...

Just thought to mention that...

More than minus 10... clean off the BIBBA fan in fact.


PH
 
Hi Grizzly

Can you tell us the source of these NZ Carniolans.


Regards Ian
 
http://www.bees.me.uk/Bees/Buy_queens.html

Morphological character of the dark bee

The dark native honey bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, is defined by having a cubital index of no more than 1.9 and a discoidal shift angle of less than zero degrees (a minus reading).

The average results are:

Cubital index 1.48

Discoidal shift -5.50 degrees


This shows very clearly that the purity of these bees is at the highest end of the scale. The average results for most dark bees tend to be in the region of:


Cubital index 1.72


Discoidal shift -2.40 degrees





In Carniolan & Italian bees the the averages are:


Cubital index higher than 2.4


Discoidal shift higher than zero degrees (a plus reading)



I hope this answers your question.


Busy Bee

P.S. The information comes from the site link.




For £85 a pop? I don't think so!
 

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