- Joined
- Mar 9, 2016
- Messages
- 2,082
- Reaction score
- 1,102
- Location
- Gower, where all the fun happens
- Hive Type
- National
- Number of Hives
- 24 + a few nucs....this has to stop!
Sorry, just had 5 days offline enjoying peace and quiet, no internet, no bees!! Not sure where this thread got to, although I can imagine nowhere as with every other threads on this subject!Sorry just seen this. You think a that amc, aml, amm and all the other subspecies evolved just for the sh#ts and giggles of it?
You think the climate of southern Italy where AML evolved is similar to middlesbbrough or any other part of the UK lol I think you might be due a holiday. The lack of brood break aml have due to their very long summers compared to England's maritime summers won't make a difference (unless your taking all the honey and feeding gallons, then passing their dones genes to local populations that don't get fed and have massive amounts of hungry brood to feed) dosnt make a difference?
It's more to do with cooler temperatures amm are adapted to survive over hot temperatures aml are adapted to survive.
I used the term most hoping readers would use their judgement and not go to extremes by comparing southern Europe to UK. I agree with AML, AMS, and perhaps others from these parts but when you look at the range of AMC, they evolve in a similar climate to ours.
Brood breaks? well my locally adapted bees and Irish Amms haven't had one over the last 2 winters because it has been so mild, just like the 3 AMC hives (UK bred) I have on a separate apiary miles away. What does that mean, they are not adapted anymore? Funnily enough, none of my hives died last winter nor needed extra feeding in the autumn and winter. They were all on an early April flow as well.
It's the same argument as livestock, why have most of the natives breed almost disappeared and are only kept by a few farmers as part of conservation programmes? Because they're not economically viable compared to other bigger breeds.
Perhaps we could take the approach of Slovenia which has made keeping anything other than AMC against the law? That would surely put every beekeeping business bankrupt within 2 years!!
Just to add a final point, I raised 6 queens from a F1 Irish Amm last summer. They made it through the winter but 3 of them were utter filth and had to be culled. The others are twitchy but manageable. If I raise queens from my F1s AMC (from B+) , I get a more or less guaranteed result for gentleness.
The 1st pic is an few AMC taken at the end of July. The 2nd one is an Amm with the top BB full of honey as well. Not much difference in yield either.
Last edited: