What type of bees do you like best?

[REDWOOD]

Lovely looking bees just like a colony I have that came from a chimney, nothing wrong with a colony being a bit protective still need to do the wing thing to see if they are AMM

 

[mbc]

Apis meliffera meliffera. Just look at her. Isn't she beautiful.

Can you come over and paint little goblin faces on my queens?

 

[madasafish]

Carnie/Buckfast/other cross..

 

[Into the lions den]

Apis meliffera meliffera. Just look at her. Isn't she beautiful.

Yes, and she looks like most of our home bred queens.

However..............is she a dud? Why?
No brood in shot to tell from (probably one larva), and despite the small number of bees, 6 of them are drones, which I would have thought odd in close attendance to the queen.

 

[victor meldrew]

buckfast x cecropia

Plugging Bruce LOL!
VM

 

[victor meldrew]

I have tried exotic bees but rely on my backyard mongrels !
I suppose I've been selective over the years in that I've encouraged the Queens that suit me for temperament ,reluctance to swarm etc. I find honey gathering to be influenced more by ,storage space given early enough, forage available and colony density .Try fishing in the gutter !
VM

 

[REDWOOD]

Plugging Bruce LOL!
VM

 

[victor meldrew]

He certainly sells prolific Queens
VM

 

[Ely]

I have Italions.

Are Carniolan better? I know a beekeeper who has Russians, he really likes them.

Italions. Are they honey bees with a mane? Must be quite expensive feeding them steak over winter.

 

[blackie]

so what are the best queens for us beginners?

 

[Finman]

Italions. Are they honey bees with a mane? Must be quite expensive feeding them steak over winter.

Yes. Sugar is expencive. With price of 3 honey kg you feed them for winter.

20 pounds. A bankruptcy.

 

[kevrhcfag]

Yes, and she looks like most of our home bred queens.

However..............is she a dud? Why?
No brood in shot to tell from (probably one larva), and despite the small number of bees, 6 of them are drones, which I would have thought odd in close attendance to the queen.

Being very much a newbie, I don't know if it is intentional but your observations in some threads are very useful / informative to me and no doubt people in a similar situation. You have a tendency to point out things that are obvious to yourself but never would of occurred or been observed by me and I find very helpful in my beekeeping education. I hope in a few years I would of learned a small percentage of the knowledge you have.

 

[Ely]

Yes. Sugar is expencive. With price of 3 honey kg you feed them for winter.

20 pounds. A bankruptcy.

Something lost in translation here I think. I was making a very poor effort at a joke with the misspelling 'lion'. I'll lay off the mulled wine

 

[keith pierce]

Yes, and she looks like most of our home bred queens.

However..............is she a dud? Why?
No brood in shot to tell from (probably one larva), and despite the small number of bees, 6 of them are drones, which I would have thought odd in close attendance to the queen.

Probably a young queen which ran onto the back frames where the drones hang out, hence the extra drones.
Because of the goblin face on her back, i probably left the frame out and went back to the van for the camera, which is why there is no attendance. I find it hard to remember what even happened yesterday.
Is she a dud? Time will tell. I have a note under the roof of the hive (QUEEN WITH SMILEY FACE) , so i will know if she has survived the winter.

 

[Into the lions den]

Probably a young queen which ran onto the back frames where the drones hang out, hence the extra drones.
Because of the goblin face on her back, i probably left the frame out and went back to the van for the camera, which is why there is no attendance. I find it hard to remember what even happened yesterday.
Is she a dud? Time will tell. I have a note under the roof of the hive (QUEEN WITH SMILEY FACE) , so i will know if she has survived the winter.

Thank you, please be quite sure the question was not asked in any way intended to offend or catch anyone out.

We get a fair old number of the most beautiful big plump young queens every year that it so pains me to squash as she has turned out as a drone layer. Thus not asking the question from any other perspective than as a person who gets such disappointments himself.

Beauty of the queen has only a partial correlation with laying potential, and no correlation at all with whether she will be a drone layer or not.

 

[Norton]

We get a fair old number of the most beautiful big plump young queens every year that it so pains me to squash as she has turned out as a drone layer. Thus not asking the question from any other perspective than as a person who gets such disappointments himself.

I have often found that these extra large non-laying/drone laying queens have some sort of blockage and this can be seen if the end of the abdomen is examined carefully - usually just a white speck is only visible. It is either some deformed eggs or dried mucus/semen that the bees haven't removed. If the blockage is removed with tweezers these queens can go on to have a normal life.

 

[Finman]

.
Too fat queens

My friend has too fat queen is her year. There were 10 hives last summer.
3 out of them had a piece of comb inside the abdomen scale. I took them off. On previous summer one had that.

When the queen push the tail into a cell, it is too tight and wax will penetrate under the abdomen scale.

 

[keith pierce]

Thank you, please be quite sure the question was not asked in any way intended to offend or catch anyone out.

We get a fair old number of the most beautiful big plump young queens every year that it so pains me to squash as she has turned out as a drone layer .

absoulatly no offence taken. The idea of the forum is for someone to learn from others questions and observations. Last year i selected a beautiful plump queen that had started to lay up an apidea box after been mated. I sent her in the post to my brother and within 24 hours she was in a full hive. 4 weeks later and she has not layed a single egg.

 

[Norton]

Maybe all this needs a thread of its own. Anyway, Finman's observation is very interesting as is Keith's remark.

These queens that have a blockage appear abnormally large (plump), probably because they are bursting with the eggs in their bodies. The workers are feeding them and they are producing pheromones so the bees just interact normally with them.

Keith's experience with the apidea may have been brought about by the queen not being left long enough to mature in the mating nuc. Queens need to be left to lay at least 2 weeks, 4 weeks is of course whole lot better and three months about perfect, in the mating nucs before being introduced elsewhere. Removal soon after the first eggs have been produced often causes problems later on with introduction, longevity and performance.

 

[MuswellMetro]

info for Bee veiw farm on be strains

i think we better explain to bee view farm whose poll it is why there are lots of "other Bees"

my explanation is the old bee of the UK is a Black Bee Apis melliffera Melilffera and quite a few of us have mongrel bees that are dark black hairy bees of AMM desecent and so are most feral bees

Russian bees means nothing to most of us as none can be imported to europe

so we have AMM, AMM black mongrels, (AM x italian Mongrels, Buckfasts (Italian special crosses) AMx Cyprus and Carnolian etc etc etc

norton will tell you more on the buckfast and cyprus crossesand other will have view on other crosses if you ask

i use buckfasts and italians but the italaians breed @orrible queens with the local AMM mongrels...follow to 200yds