Hi  all

I'm Glad Murray made his last post, I was about to ask about such crossings.

Many criticise crossings of AMM inflenced strains with  various others and
say that the outcome is a nasty, stingy bee... They blame the AMM for this
and particulary AMM drones x other strain virgins.

My own experience has been against a background of mongrel drones that
contain much Italian influence (several different Italian strains). Many
matings result in bad tempered bees that are intensive brood raisers. The
high populations of bees then just sit about and starve unless we get direct
sunshine, in which case (perhaps one year in five) they will fetch a crop
in.

I have always maintained that it is the Italian genes that bring the
aggressivness to the cross matings, but it would not surprise me if Murray
said that he had regular infusions of Italian blood in his stocks, and I was
wondering if there were any conlusions he could draw from his yards that had
different racial make up.


Best Regards & 73s, Dave Cushman... G8MZY
Beekeeping & Bee Breeding Website
Email: [log in to unmask] or  [log in to unmask]
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman & http://www.dave-cushman.net

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