I’ve tried one of Ceri’s locally adapted queens. Wanted to add to my genetics. I wouldn’t buy from outside our island and my preference is always to breed from my best and try as far as possible to have locally adapted bees, with the traits that are important to me and suit my environment (damn cold, windy and wet).
However from time to time it’s good to add diversity. I asked around and
@mbc came up trumps. Whilst he’s a lot further south I reckoned west wales with the wet climate, though much warmer than the Pennines, would still be a good choice.
Lovely queen. No nosema ( know it’s endemic), no chalk brood, excellent brood pattern, lovely and calm black queen and bees. Productive too. She has a slightly dark brown banding indicative of Welsh blacks. I like her characteristics. She proved a little swarmy in what had been an incredible swarmy 2023 season, but the q cell numbers were low - good indicator. I now have her daughter and I will be testing and monitoring her to see how she performs before making further judgements. All depends on the boys now!
Overall if you’re interested in dark queens that have some AMM traits and genetics (though of course won’t be pure) I’d recommend
@mbc and Northumberland honey. But ask for AMM strain or as close as they can achieve if you want dark hardy bees. My nearest neighbour has gone down the latter route which I’m chuffed about as we’re both commityed now to locally adapted hardy blacks. Bees in a remote location and it’s important to keep genetics diverse
What I will say to blow my own trumpet is since I have been working on my locally adapted bees for 7 seasons now - I get the odd rogue. I cull. I clip - I haven’t had a winter loss in 7 years and characteristics important to me are improving. The main ones hard to crack seem to be nosema (endemic and my bees seem to ignore it) and swarm tendencies. I personally think if your bees are healthy and thriving that’s natural anyway so as long as they don’t try 2x in one season I’m relaxed about this trait.
I’m a novice but just a few thoughts to date from me
