- Joined
- Jul 30, 2019
- Messages
- 6,743
- Reaction score
- 4,646
- Location
- Herefordshire/shropshire
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 30+
Evening this is a bit of a story about a superior black queen I got given from a friend/mentor who helped me out last year.
This gentleman has passed away on Thursday night , I could go on about his illness but I want to talk about his queen and colony he gave me as a parting gift as he retired at 80 years old
He was a black bee man and lived in South Shropshire on one of the hills, he had been a beekeeper most of his life and could rear queen's for fun something I wished I'd of asked him to show me.
The colony and Queen he said was three years old and the queen was" a good black un she ena gunna treat yu badly " his words!
So this queen I've used for some of my grafting attempts and the daughters are much the same as her.
This queen is now being superseded and today I've removed three really good capped cells after making up strong nucs.
Queen is present and laying so definitely supersedure.
Will they produce more supersedure cells? I hope so.
The workers are over 90% black with a dark brown first banding which to me is a fairly pure strain of amms, more than any I have seen anyway.
He wasn't a member of any association being from the travelling community and originally from Ireland they keep themselves to themselves.
I spoke to one of his elder lads tonight on the phone and will hopefully pay my respects as and when I can.
It's funny to me that this queen is superseding this season around the time of his passing, and I hope I can keep this strain of bee going if only I new how to ii.
Thanks you for your queen and colony I will treasure the daughters and look after them to the best of my abilities.
This gentleman has passed away on Thursday night , I could go on about his illness but I want to talk about his queen and colony he gave me as a parting gift as he retired at 80 years old
He was a black bee man and lived in South Shropshire on one of the hills, he had been a beekeeper most of his life and could rear queen's for fun something I wished I'd of asked him to show me.
The colony and Queen he said was three years old and the queen was" a good black un she ena gunna treat yu badly " his words!
So this queen I've used for some of my grafting attempts and the daughters are much the same as her.
This queen is now being superseded and today I've removed three really good capped cells after making up strong nucs.
Queen is present and laying so definitely supersedure.
Will they produce more supersedure cells? I hope so.
The workers are over 90% black with a dark brown first banding which to me is a fairly pure strain of amms, more than any I have seen anyway.
He wasn't a member of any association being from the travelling community and originally from Ireland they keep themselves to themselves.
I spoke to one of his elder lads tonight on the phone and will hopefully pay my respects as and when I can.
It's funny to me that this queen is superseding this season around the time of his passing, and I hope I can keep this strain of bee going if only I new how to ii.
Thanks you for your queen and colony I will treasure the daughters and look after them to the best of my abilities.