I wrote recently regarding Ontario Buckfast breeders, and got swamped for my
trouble!!
To all the folks who wrote asking for information, I just cannot
write to you all individually to give you the info and answer all the
questions, if would take forever. So I am sending this to the whole list. If
I should miss a point or two, then please e-mail again. For those without
interest in what we are doing I apologise for taking up your time.
Ontario Bee Breeding
There are 3 main Buckfast breeders in Ontario. One in the NW, one in
the SW and one in the SE of Ontario.
Each breeder is licenced by Buckfast Abbey and each pays a Royalty
to the Abbey on each Queen sold. They are visited on a regular basis, and
each receives imports of new stock. Each of these breeders is required to
maintain ISOLATED breeding areas as part of their licence, and can supply
CLOSED mated queens.
The average price of queens is as follows:-
Closed mated Buckfast $35.00 CDN
Open mated Buckfast $15.00 CDN
Some breeders will supply Cells only at $3.00
and Virgin Queens at $6.00
Needless to say cells really only work for collection customers, and virgins
are difficult to introduce.
BUCKFAST BREEDERS
SE Ontario Barry Davies
RR#1 Seeley's Bay. ON. CA
K0H 2N0
(613) 387-3171
NW Ontario Rick Neilson
RR#1 Stratton. ON. CA
P0W 1N0
(807) 487-2387
SW Ontario Paul Montoux
RR#1 Hagersville. ON. CA
N0A 1H0
(905) 768-5530
I make no claims or promises regarding the above.As far as I am aware, none
are on thec Bee-l or the Web.
To use Ontario queens would require a slightly different approach than
usually practiced. We make increase this year, do not expect a crop in the
first year, but then have really big hives in the second year. Often the
split queen is old and is replaced at the same time, and a big hive can then
be split 3 or even 4 times. This way production hives are not disturbed, and
less hives are broken down to make increase. Our first queens are usually
available the first or second week in June, before this date drones are in
short supply and mating can be erratic.
There are no problems exporting bees to the U.S in fact I personally
have been exporting Queens all summer long.
There are a number of breeders who are using Buckfast as a means of
achieving Tracheal Mite resistant bees, in fact we are one. We use Buckfast
mothers and mate to our Italians. This combination produces the ideal bee
for the climate in our area, hard working, early starter, quick spring build
up, works even when it's cold and wet. We are unable to use the words
Buckfast in our description or advertising as we are not licenced.
I hope this will answer the questions, I would recomend that you
give us a try next year, we do have good bees and care about what we are
doing!!!!
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* David Eyre 9 Progress Drive, Unit 2, *
* The Beeworks, Orillia, Ontario, L3V 6H1. *
* [log in to unmask] 705-326-7171 *
* http://www.muskoka.net/~beeworks *
* Agents for: E H Thorne & B J Sherriff UK. *
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