> and the fact that those queens were instrumentally inseminated.
you received 60 instrumentally inseminated (II) queens. Interesting.
I have to ask why did you want the II queens. To be sure the Italians were
mated to Italians and the carni's with carni drones?
Despite what many might say I have had poor luck with *longevity* with II
queens and also bees superseding.
I have also had introduction problems with imported races introduced into
U.S. bees.
I still run a few yards of Aussie bees. Mine are mongrels and a bit testy at
times. The first import was very yellow ( looking almost like my cordovan
line) but the later imports mixed with buckfast & and Italian line imported
into Australia are rather dark and leather colored. I believe those are an
Italian /Carni cross.
I received 26 II breeder queens in one shipment from Australia in the second
year of the import. If I remember correctly 5 different lines. Those
purebred buckfast did poorly and were quickly superseded. One line was
Italian/Italian from a breeder in France and were said the be varroa
tolerant. Which they were and easily accepted by my Italians ( maybe a
color thing?). The other two lines were carnie & an Italian One from my
friends bees and the other from a small Aussie queen breeder. Both did Ok .
The carnis were very dark and did ok but I am not a carni fan.
To be honest one of the Italian lines ( not from my friend) had chalkbrood
bad but would clear up a bit when brood rearing was cranked up.
I had the best luck with the open mated mongrel queens from several years.
We received 500 in one shipment and my partner and I were pleased with those
but a beekeeping supplier took a 100 from us and said his hobby beekeepers
did not care for. ????
I like my cordovan line but those bees are not the best producers for
Italian bees but gentle and beautiful to look at plus easy to spot queens
for old eyes.
Do any of the above sound like the Australian queens you received
Abdulaziz?
Thanks for your post!
Very interesting to exchange information with beekeepers in other countries.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm
