The Honey Factory

[BirdsBeesTrees]

I was thinking Russians too, because of the bad behavior. Carniolans are a dark bee like @R2elk said and poor producers, but they are the most docile breed.
Here's a bit from Foley's Russian Bees: Russian honey bees tend to be dark. Russian Queens are also usually dark and often have striped markings. These ‘stripes’ are similar to tiger stripes, an uneven undulation across each abdomen segment. In addition several beekeepers report that the Russian/Russian queen is dark with light blond hairs and “the longest wings of any bees I have ever worked with”.

 

[duluthralphie]

I would guess Carniolans. They are a dark bee and they are not good honey producers.

I am back to them being Italians.... based on my experience with them. Vito, Guino, Antonio, Rocco, Marco and the rest all act like these bees..

 

[jerryse]

Back when Dad had bees in the early 60's the trend was wild bees were inferior to the newer genetics being sold . Midnite and Starline were hybrids being offered by Dadant . Now there is a movement saying local wild bees have the best genes for your area . They survive your winters with no help and no treatments . Plus they have genes from swarms of beekeepers colonies . Best of both worlds so to speak . Largely Italian genetics with a sprinkle of the latest . Thinking of trying a queen next year from a local source that subscribes to this idea . I like the idea of natural .

 

[CindyinSD]

Back when Dad had bees in the early 60's the trend was wild bees were inferior to the newer genetics being sold . Midnite and Starline were hybrids being offered by Dadant . Now there is a movement saying local wild bees have the best genes for your area . They survive your winters with no help and no treatments . Plus they have genes from swarms of beekeepers colonies . Best of both worlds so to speak . Largely Italian genetics with a sprinkle of the latest . Thinking of trying a queen next year from a local source that subscribes to this idea . I like the idea of natural .

I don't think there are any wild honeybees up here in the Hills. We had so much clover here this year, as always; hardly any pollinators of any kind. Bumblebees but not many, and assorted other bee-like buzzers.

I guess I'm going to order MN Hygenics (I think is what they're called). A local guy here orders those & (if I remember right) Italians. I figure our climate is a bit cold for Russian bees , but not cold for MN bees—at least not Ralphie's part of MN. Besides, anything I've found to get Ruskies via mail-order is too long a trip for the seller to guarantee I'll receive living bees.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

Here’s some ramblings of the subject of breed traits... sorry it’s so long

I don’t put a great deal of stock in breed descriptions for bees for a few reasons... but basically it’s often a lot like cattle breed descriptions...

If we go read the Belted Galloway description on that breed association website and then go talk to someone who has raised them... we’ll likely find most of them don’t live up to very much of the description, other than appearance... and this can be the case for bees too...

I have mutt bees that most often tend toward Italian in looks and behavior, but they are far from pure, and they vary from what you’d read Italians should be... particularly in habit... but I often just say they are Italians... unless they are dark then I often just say they are carniolans...but they’re really just a mix of any of the 2 or 3 (or maybe 4?) common breeds...

there is a beek a couple miles from me that has had buckfast bees in the past, and we have quite a few wild/feral hives around also, so who knows?

and sometimes they end up mixed bred...the queen I had here at the house last year and this spring produced both dark and light colored bees...

but even the queens sourced from commercial bee breeders are very often of a type, but not actually pure...

No one talks about this, but I think a lot of the replacement queens and package bees available in spring in the US are coming off west coast almonds where they build up and then get made into packages and such and sold across the rest of the country, but there is very little to no selective breeding going on

I have a hunch that a lot of the big package and replacement producers that offer Italian or carniolan... just call the light ones Italians and the dark ones carniolans

For the most part, the only guaranteed pure bred bees are artificially inseminated and cost big, big money...

so it’s often a good idea to take the breed description as general information and recognize that even if you buy a certain breed queen, she might not match the breed qualities exactly...

And of course that old saying that ‘all bee keeping is local’ always comes into play, and I remind myself that local often means ‘local to the particular hive’...

I’ve taken queen cells from the same hive and raised queens that were very different in terms of their hive’s productivity and behavior...

And some queens/hives are just simply weak producers of honey even though they are healthy hives... and even if they look to be the great honey producing Italians that the breed description describes they have other traits not related to appearance that give a different result

but like most things, it’s a trade off when it comes to traits... I had this image on my phone in my bee folder, that I think is a good summation of some of the trade offs we encounter in bees...

Not sure it means much to us hobby beeks that aren’t doing any serious trait fixing work, but I think the traits and trade offs are an interesting thing to think about

 

[R2elk]

Besides, anything I've found to get Ruskies via mail-order is too long a trip for the seller to guarantee I'll receive living bees.

You definitely don't want to have USPS ship them. I have not had any problems with next day air deliveries via UPS. It costs but for me it is no more than what I would have in driving expenses to the closest place that I can buy bees.

 

[duluthralphie]

I could sell you one of my hives @CindyinSD ...

 

[jerryse]

Ralphie watch this .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXuzQkXVKXI

 

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie watch this .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXuzQkXVKXI

Interesting, I had no idea you could find a queen by moving frames.

I did know he screwed up leaving the cork in the queen cage.

If my mean hive lives to spring, I might have to find the queen and feed her to Tweety. Then put a new one in.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Interesting, I had no idea you could find a queen by moving frames.

I did know he screwed up leaving the cork in the queen cage.

If my mean hive lives to spring, I might have to find the queen and feed her to Tweety. Then put a new one in.

That guy's an idiot.