In a message dated 01/08/2008 10:59:12 GMT Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: <<Working towards A.m.m. Not easy in this part of the world as we have had so many different races brought into the area over the years - but we are winning! The A.m.m./Italian hybrid seems to give the worst temper. Some our best colonies are the purer A.m.m. - hardy, thrifty (very little winter feed needed), docile (some can be handled without smoke), happy with single brood box, good crops, low swarming, supersede (queens can live 3-4 years)...>> Have you done any morphometrics on your bees? A quick and dirty check on the discoidal shift is enough to get a general idea, so I'm guessing you probably have. Are they local? I've managed to maintain a near-AMM strain for several generations in central Birmingham, without any problems, and in the last couple of weeks I've added two swarms which are a bit too stripy for my liking, but superficially look close enough to AMM. Both were headed by virgins, so morphometrics will be pretty meaningless for the next six seeks or so. I may or may not requeen them next year, depending how they check out. There's a large-scale (for Britain) beekeeper the other side of the city who keeps some fairly nasty hybrids, and local people have told me before now that it's 'impossible' to keep AMM locally as a result. If the two of us can both do it in the West Mids, then it can't be that hard! Regards, Robert Brenchley Birmingham UK **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * ****************************************************