In article <[log in to unmask]>, Mats
Andersson <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Murray McGregor wrote about his bees in Scotland and the difference
>between plastic and wooden boxes...
>
>And i'd like to ask him: what race are these bees? Are they Buckfast?
>Do you have experiences from several races and if yes - do your
>statements cover all those regarding spring buildup in different hive
>types?

The best bees in terms of results in our area are carnica/mellifera
crosses, and the top colonies of both this and some straight mellifera
gave well over 50Kg of heather honey this year, in polystyrene.

We have some Buckfast, and have had them from various breeders over the
years and never found any of them to be of much use here, but keep
looking. Trouble is, what is a Buckfast? From various breeders they turn
up in every conceivable colour from very dark to custard yellow. The
dark ones are generally the better here, but still not up to standard.
Our remaining Buckfasts in polystyrene this year are very strong, and
occupy at least as many boxes as the dark bees, but crucially they have
no honey at all in the bottom box, and only a little in the second one,
whereas the black bees have honey all the way to the bottom of the hive
bar their central clustering area.

Caucasia are OK up to a point, but do go down spectacularly with
tracheal mites.

I have also tried, and gradually rejected, cecropia, macedonica and
ligustica. All display similar crop characteristics to the Buckfasts.

All build up well in a similar pattern in polystyrene, although the
upswing in the black mellifera is the most spectacular (albeit from a
considerably smaller spring cluster size)



>
>Between what dates will Dandelions typically be in bloom over there?
>Just trying to compare your early season to ours (Stockholm, Sweden),
>where Dandelion bloom often begins early May 1:st and ends by the
>beginning of June.

Sorry, we do not get much of a dandelion bloom here as nearly all the
land is arable. On roadsides they bloom in late April mainly but also
through into May. Oilseed rape (canola) from the autumn sowing comes
into flower at around the same time.

Hope this helps.
--
Murray McGregor