Which Type of Bees

[B+.]

One for B+

Thanks Icanhopit. I've already seen that video. I'm not sure if you can see the history on my YouTube channel but I have it "liked"

I have the Schley II kit but his is just as good. It looks like we haven't come very far despite the passage of time. Speaking of II, I have even seen the stands made out of blocks of wood. It does the job....so II doesn't have to be expensive. The only parts you really need are a microscope, hooks and a syringe (Dave Cushman used to use old insulin syringes so even these can be obtained for little/nothing).

 

[B+.]

From an old B+ posting when some it would seem were still throwing toys out of the pram!!

I apologize if it was me ;-)

 

[B+.]

he only parts you really need are a microscope, hooks and a syringe (Dave Cushman used to use old insulin syringes so even these can be obtained for little/nothing).

Oh....and a pair of binoculars turned around the other way will do if you don't have a microscope (John Pollards method).....you just need magnification. Depending how good your eyesight is: *10-*20, although *20 may be too much)

 

[Hivemaker.]

Good thread currently on Beesource, mainly by a UK member who also posts on here, everything to do with making your own II eqipment, almost all of it, very long thread with 352 posts....and an incredible number of pictures and links of where to source the materials needed, mostly in the UK.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?263523-Instrumental-Insemination-Equipment

 

[Finman]

Niks

 

[For want of a better word]

I apologize if it was me ;-)

No Paul... you are a Gentleman!

Yeghes da

 

[B+.]

Good thread currently on Beesource

Thanks HM. Its a long thread so it will take a bit of time to plough through.

I scanned a page from "A manual for the Artificial Insemination of Queen bees" By Otto Mackensen & W.C. Roberts which has the dimensions in for the queen holder. I haven't compared it with the one I got from Peter Schley, but, I assume they're the same dimensions.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thanks HM. Its a long thread so it will take a bit of time to plough through.

dimensions in for the queen holder.

All in that Beesource thread, plus how to make your own perforated sting hooks, with pictures of the process, takes about ten/fifteen minutes to make one of those, and cost about 20p plus the time.

 

[B+.]

All in that Beesource thread, plus how to make your own perforated sting hooks, with pictures of the process, takes about ten/fifteen minutes to make one of those, and cost about 20p plus the time.

Thanks. I'll take a look.

I need to get some more tips for the Harbo syringe. I keep trying to convince my wife that I need one of these to make them (http://www.sutter.com/MICROPIPETTE/p-2000.html). She's not having any of it!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Thanks. I'll take a look.

I need to get some more tips for the Harbo syringe.

Shows you how to make your own tips, where to buy the glass capillary tube, and how to make the tool for pulling them...all very cheap and simple to do.

Also some posts about building the apparatus using 3D printing, one guy who builds II apparatus like this has a few videos on the thread using it, think he inseminates around 1500/2000 queens a year with it.

 

[B+.]

Shows you how to make your own tips, where to buy the glass capillary tube, and how to make the tool for pulling them...all very cheap and simple to do.

I know. Mrs B+ keeps telling me I don't need one.....but......

A vertical drop puller would be quite easy to make. I did hear that Peter Schley was going to start selling them again, but I'm not sure if he did. I have loads of glass pipettes so I suppose I could do it myself. I'm not good at that sort of thing though. Give me a computer and I'll make it sing and dance. Give me anything tangible to make and I'll break it.

 

[rdmw]

I think it depends upon your local environment and local stock. I have very dark bees which are placid and had a very enjoyable teaching weekend on colonsay with Andrew Abrahams who has pure AMM and they were so gentle we did bot need a veil (although had one handy!)
Check out the Scottish native honeybee society for helpful info on AMM. And if you ever had the chance to go on one of Andrews courses I would recommend it.
Otherwise I try to have four hives and make up four nucs a year so as to have young queens and the option to requeen a less well natured colony


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[pargyle]

Am I the only one not OK with this sort of trickery?

Well ... I think everyone had a suspicion that 150kg a hive was pretty miraculous from a single colony ... taken us a few years to flush this little gem out of the Finnish Member though ...

Makes my miserable performance far more acceptable as I don't stack three brood boxes together and pretend it's a single colony !!!

 

[B+.]

Well ... I think everyone had a suspicion that 150kg a hive was pretty miraculous from a single colony ...

I was prepared to believe that it could be feasible because my highest producing colonies brought home just over 130Kg. I have nothing significant after the blackberries though so, if I'd take them to the heather, 150Kg should have been easily achievable.
I maintain that the yield from a colony can only be from its own means. If you artificially enhance its performance, you aren't measuring its innate ability any more.

 

[Beefriendly]

I was prepared to believe that it could be feasible because my highest producing colonies brought home just over 130Kg. I have nothing significant after the blackberries though so, if I'd take them to the heather, 150Kg should have been easily achievable.
I maintain that the yield from a colony can only be from its own means. If you artificially enhance its performance, you aren't measuring its innate ability any more.

Finman has always been open about banging lots of bees together in a hive. It's a measure of what can be achieved, not a measure of an individual queens performance.
When it comes to migratory beekeeping then the numbers of hives you have to move becomes quite significant. Better to have the bees in fewer boxes.
Many do the same.

 

[B+.]

banging lots of bees together in a hive. It's a measure of what can be achieved, not a measure of an individual queens performance.

Absolutely. I accept that....but, it isn't the performance of the queen and is misleading if you're trying to decide which queens to breed from. It comes down to whether the information is useful for the purpose its intended. If it isn't, then, its misinformation.

 

[Finman]

Absolutely. I accept that....but, it isn't the performance of the queen and is misleading if you're trying to decide which queens to breed from. It comes down to whether the information is useful for the purpose its intended. If it isn't, then, its misinformation.

You really want to understand wrong, B+. Vain to explain to you, but you deliver wrong knowledge about me. But it is your habit. I have seen it many times.

I have most of queens such that they better than your hives. They are bigger.
I do not accept one no layers.

I use 3 langstrot brood boxes in hives.

But I do not pile my boxes for something forum discussion. My queens are good, because I buy good queens.

But there are splitted hives too for AS and smaller hives, which are not so good. AS hives must be joined, and foragers and homebees + brood must be in balance. This happens by joining.

And I do not measure "performance". I just harvest the yield from pastures during our 4-6 yield week, what is our summer.

I got 40 kg honey/hive with two box swarms 1967 on average.

I rank my pastures. That is my system. But I knew allready 50 years ago, what is difference with good queen and poor queen and how to get them.

Cant you understand. I do not breed queens. I rear them only. I buy queens from brofessional beeks, which have over 300 hives.

When I rear queens, the daugter hives will be hybrids. They are better than "pure" bees.

.

 

[Beefriendly]

Absolutely. I accept that....but, it isn't the performance of the queen and is misleading if you're trying to decide which queens to breed from. It comes down to whether the information is useful for the purpose its intended. If it isn't, then, its misinformation.

If Finman was offering you his queens to breed from it would be misleading. As a method of beekeeping management I find it very interesting.
Comparing yields is fraught with problems, apiary site and available forage can have a huge bearing. Compound it with some migratory beekeeping and you have a right old recipe for confusion.

 

[Finman]

.
If you have under 20 hives, it is vain to try to breed your own bee stock. In 5 years it will collapse into inbreeding problems.

But you can buy couple of new quees every year from professional and then rear F1 daughters from them. They mate with your earlier stock drones and you avoid inbreeding. Hives may be swarmy, but better than inbred non swarmers.
.

You can change your bees as much as you want and try, which type bees are good in your hands.
.
I have had at least 20 different style Italians. You see next summer what they are when you buy them.
.