<[log in to unmask]> wrote 20th Feb.
>David,
>       Maybe you could post adresses of Buckfast breeders in Ontario. There
>are many people who don't know of the program up there. And maybe some
>info about the program.
 
When I posted my original note it was to warn that 'Buckfast' is not the
panacea for what ails bee keeping.Unless you can purchase "closed mated"
complete with their pedigree, then they are not 'Buckfast' and as such their
performance would be unpredictable. Therein lies your problems.
Unpredictablity!!  Bees bred in the South often will perform badly in the
North, due to our long winters. So this method of buying queens or packages
of unknown origin or pedigree will produce unreliable results.
        There are 3 Buckfast breeders in Ontario, all of whom are licensed,
all of whom replenish their gene pool.
                        Barry Davies, RR# 1, Seeley's Bay, ON. K0H 2N0
                        Rick Neilsen, RR# 1,Stratton, ON. P0W 1N0
                        Paul Montoux, RR# 1, Hagersville, ON. N0A 1H0
They all sell open mated and closed mated 'Buckfast', prices for open mated
around $11 and closed mated around $25 US
        To clear up a point at no time did I point fingers at any of my
fellow Queen breeders!!!
        Having said my fill I have been requested to forward the following
to the list. Why me I fail to understand??
 
 
Dear David,
    Our technician Tillie Welsh brought to my attention the recent
communications concerning Buckfast queens maintained by the Weavers.
    To begin with, if someone really wants to know what the Weavers
are doing, then you should contact them directly rather than
adding to the rumours that are circulating.
    Each of the respondents is somewhat correct in what they state.
"As I understand the situation" from talking with both the Weavers in
1988 and my visits to Brother Adam in 1989 and 1990, the Weavers have
occasionally imported semen from Buckfast Abbey.  In addition, to
maintain pure breeder queens they have in the past brought in Sue
Cobey to do the necessary instrumental inseminations.  Finally,
in about 1991 or so, apparently in part at the urging of the Weavers,
the USDA lab in Baton Rouge imported 14 live queens to their
quarantine island in the Gulf of Mexico.  Eventually, after these had
cleared all necessary tests, they were brought onto the mainland and
some or all of them ended up with the Weavers.  How they have
incorporated that stock into their own stock is a matter for them to
answer; I have no information on that.
    All of that added together suggests that they have been able to
maintain the "purity" of the stock.  But what is purity?  The
Buckfast bee is a product of specific selection procedures.  The
Weavers do not select on exactly the same set of criteria as has
Brother Adam, so consequently their bees should be quite different.
In fact Brother Adam visited Texas, I believe in the 1980's, and
found the "Buckfast" bees being raised there very different from his
own.  Nevertheless, they are still sold under that name, and a
royalty is paid to Buckfast Abbey for every queen (but at a level
much lower than is paid by all other Buckfast queen producers; it is
less than $1.00 US by my information).
    I have faith in the ability of the Weavers as well.  They are
good queen producers, have been doing it for years, and are about as
honest and dependable as one can hope for.  Their Buckfast stocks are
certainly different genetically from those at Buckfast Abbey, and
almost certainly different from those purely mated queens being sold
from Ontario now.  But then, no two queens are identical genetically,
so the real questions are the degree to which their stock has drifted
away from the European standards, and the degree to which they have
been able to control the insemination of the breeding stock.
    As buyers, you try queens from different sources and find those
that satisfy you.  Many people like the Weaver Buckfast queens, and
there is good evidence that they are much less susceptible to
tracheal mites.  These queens are open mated, and so are less pure
than their breeding stock.  Because of some wild colonies in the area
(rapidly disappearing from Varroa infestations) there is a bit more
variability in the stock than under more isolated conditions.  If you
are not in the breeding business (queen rearing) business yourself,
you can purchase your queens over and over from the same supplier.
    We too have had some problems getting queens to be accepted.  I
think that because of their diverse background (Anatolian,
sahariensis, British mellifera, Italian Ligurian, etc.) they probably
smell quite different, so one must overcome the tendency of bees to
reject a foreign queen.  These are real foreigners.  I agree with the
idea of introducing to a queenless nuc (even as one might do for 2-
queening), then kill the original queen and fuse the colony back
together after the acceptance of the Buckfast (new) queen.
    I would appreciate it if you would forward this information to
the BEE-L network.
 
                                    Sincerely,
 
                                    Dr. Gard W. Otis
                                    Ontario Agricultural College
                                    University of Guelph
                                    Guelph, Ontario CANADA
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