This beekeeping is all or nothing!

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Similar experience with Buckfast has shown that the F1's are usually fine, some even better than mum...(hybrid vigour)....it's the the next generation (F2's) you need to watch. Perhaps better to not breed this far. But worth experimenting with. My limited experience of F2's are Fine/and queen killed.....Although a total of 2 F2's is not really representative of a general trend. The bad F2's are about the same as my worst (now-ex) local bees.

Back to when this thread was interesting. I have a major question mark, based on temperament and brood pattern, over one of my Buckfast F1s. My local mongrels are as tame as my F0 Buckfasts but more swarmy. A horrible conundrum! I reckon I can stay on top of swarming though, whereas stings through the nitriles get boring VERY quickly.