Hi all
 
Some interesting things I noted in this thread were to do with bee
biodiversity and the need for fresh gene inflow into the US etc.
 
It mentioned that a queen that mated with her close relatives etc (ie
her own drones) would have a bad laying pattern and would not be very
successful, as there would be many holes in the hives.
 
With the introduction of the AHB to Brazil and the rest of the
america's it appears that a total of 6 hives wwere left in brazil.
That would mean that there were about 6 mated queens, each with say
lines of twenty different drones in them (being optimistic) so that
makes the genetic input of 126 individuals in the african honey bee
population of the area. Has anybody with experience with AHB in these
areas found bad laying patterns?
 
The other things here as well is how often workers lay eggs of
drones. Beekeepers that I know that keep AHB upcountry of us say that
they frequently find a few drone cells above the excluder. That would
theoretically increase the number of drone types being produced by a
hive?
 
On the topic of inner cover boards, something that I quite like for
this purpose is corrugated plastic. It does not break and is cheap
and does not gum up as bees cant get stuff to stick to it very well.
 
Keep well
 
Garth
 
---
Garth Cambray       Kamdini Apiaries
15 Park Road        Apis melifera capensis
Grahamstown         800ml annual precipitation
6139
Eastern Cape
South Africa               Phone 27-0461-311663
 
3rd year Biochemistry/Microbiology    Rhodes University
In general, generalisations are bad.
Interests: Flii's and Bees.