what queen for london

[MuswellMetro]

in london
Hive in garden close residentail area, weekends only inspections, 14x12 brood, 150 acre of open land ( allotements and golf course) immediately behind my house. hive exits over allotement 10 ft below

what queen would people buy, buckfast, italian..carnie crossm, 4 miles from OSR

my last queen a blackish mongrel from Bedfordshire..not pussy cats but really nasty if crossed with italians so natural superceding may not be the anwser.

 

[BKF Admin]

My personal opinion would be local mongrel,if you want a hybrid I would say Buckfast.

 

[RoofTops]

I am sure London already has a queen, although I admit she is visting Bermuda at the moment.

I could make a tasteless joke about island mating sites but won't.

 

[BKF Admin]

clive de bruyn tells a joke about queen pheremone.

He said the further away from the queen her subjects live the less pheremone is shared around making the population a little less respectful of her,he says a good example is our Queen living in London and the Scottish not getting enough of her pheromone due to the distance.

 

[mark s]

can you get german queens

 

[RoofTops]

She already has German ancestry.

On a more serious note, I found this website recently: http://www.honigmet.de/index.php?page=categorie&cat=5. Click on the Union flag sign to get it traslated assuming you need it that way.

I know importing queens is verboten in many minds but you can argue these Buckfast queens are coming back home.

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

There is surely a London beekeeping group with whom you could check??

As for the despicable and treacherous comments above, I suppose one should be grateful that no one brought out the old one about there being no queen like an old queen?!

 

[Black Comb]

Beecraft arrived today and I see on p.28 an advertisement for "Pure British native dark queens" which are instrumentally inseminated.

The proprietor is David Campbell in East Sussex.

Anyone had any dealings with him?

He also sells chickens.

 

[hedgerow pete]

does anyone know of him and what are his queens like , and can you print his number for me please peter either here or in a pm . i am not certain if admin will allow it on the thread best just pm it to me please

 

[Hivemaker.]

His website is in this thread already. below.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2905

 

[MuswellMetro]

There is surely a London beekeeping group with whom you could check??

As for the despicable and treacherous comments above, I suppose one should be grateful that no one brought out the old one about there being no queen like an old queen?!

in my BKA the Bees all speak italian, but the next door BKA's bees all speak slovankain

i like neither as both double brood ( or More in London )


i was just feeling a bit rebelious


but thank you for views

geoff

by the grace of oliver Lord Proctor of the commonwealth Ahmen

 

[Brosville]

nip down to Brighton for the day - you'll be spoilt for choice!

 

[Black Comb]

Not many drones down there then?

 

[Tom Bick]

I am sure London already has a queen, although I admit she is visting Bermuda at the moment.

I could make a tasteless joke about island mating sites but won't.

Dont worry still plenty of Queens in London

 

[cstroud]

If its the website for Native black queens I looked at, they must be bloody god for £65. thats a lot.

Chris

 

[Hivemaker.]

cstroud, thats not at all expensive for pure line instrumentally inseminated queen bee's,they can cost many hundreds,or even thousands if top quality breeder queens. Not the kind of queens you just plonk in a normal production colony.

 

[BKF Admin]

I was thinking its a very good price,I was expecting them to be £95-£120 each.

 

[cstroud]

Crikey- I did'nt realise. just goes to show how valuable it is to select a strain yourself and breed from it!!!
Chris

 

[BKF Admin]

Chris,you now they are not open mated but inseminated by hand?

 

[cstroud]

Yes, I guess thats what makes them so expensive- I was going to say perhaps its the 'royalties' that makes them expensive!! ha ha

I reckon my own queens hav'nt mated as well this year as the couple I bought (which were'nt artificially inseminated). One was from a guy called Andrew Gould who hails from Gloucester, and it laid prolifically and built up from a nuc very quick. The other was from KBS.

Chris