Thank you everyone.
I must say that I'm hearing different reviews of Buckfast from different people, saying that 1st gen they are lovely but as soon as they outbreed they become the bees from hell! And AMM I had always been told were not swarmy at all.
I suggested Caucasians because they are said to be gentle on the comb, not as prolific as other strains and whilst they produce less honey, are less likely to want to swarm. My hives are on someone else's land and well out of sight so I can't monitor them constantly - the once a week inspection is all I can do without becoming a nuisance myself.
My own mongrels are calm enough, except of course under normal stress situations, i.e. queenlessness and bad beekeeping behaviour (rolling and squishing etc), but their tendency to be overly prolific has (IMO) led to a CBPV situation because I wasn't quick enough in keeping the space issue under control. I've worked hard to manage that out of the colonies and they are almost free of it; just the odd shaky bee here and there.
I'll check out those suppliers in the spring. I've only ever had my own queens or ones that came with a nuc; do the suppliers post the queens out? how do they stop them from being killed in transit? I'm in Durham, NE England so a fair distance away from Cardigan! I'm on the BBKA page and several others where Jon Getty is also a member so I can ask him directly, and I'll check out his webpage.
Thank you all again,
Suzi