--- Michael Palmer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
...Not sure what you mean by
> "secondary traits," but it
> seems these changes have more to do with the year,
> than with the bees.
Hi Mike,
I agree, most times they do have to do with the
year,,,
But where I have bees at home, there are 'fair years'
and then there are 'poor years', never ever a good
year.
I will get to 'secondary traits' in a moment.
But first,
if I may give some background,,,
My 'home apiary' is in a terrible location for bees,
(Yes I have other locations down in the prime areas,
but as Dorothy said: "there's no place like home" :>).
The locust and tulip is great here, but then in mid
May when tree bloom ends there is only left minimal
forage for bees, and if we have a late freeze, the
tree bloom will mostly end altogether. Then it is
poor forage until goldenrod and other woodland type
asters start blooming in late summer. And even then
these quantities are not sufficient to get much more
than a meager surplus, or replenish the broodnest from
depleted stores in time for wintering.
If you look at a map of my ridge apiary, you will see
that I am surrounded by woodlands to the north, east,
and south. The main forage during the summer months
is located to the westerly directions in the low lands
where the bees here must fly a mile to two miles
before any significant nectar sources are located, and
I see them flying in that direction during summer
months.
For many years I have suffered devastating colony
losses here at home where I used to keep 'all my
colonies'. Due probably to the compounding effects of
varroa, TM, lack of near by nutritional forage, along
with my use of non acclimated bees and treatments.
IMO, healthy bees can easily handle a few stresses,
but when there are compounding stresses it may become
too much.
So now I'm looking at the ferals that are doing well
in the ridge land areas to try and find an answer.
There are the well known traits, broodnest fecundity,
honey production, low swarming, gentleness. But there
are also other secondary traits that may be very
important to ones own localized environment and IMO
may be essential for keeping bees in areas where
forage is sparse or other unique environmental
conditions exist.
I'm looking at the secondary quality (if I am
diagnosing what I am seeing correctly) 'wing power'
which if highly-developed can influence the flight
range of a bee. How doe's one select for this?,,,
I have no good idea!!! :>) ,,, only theories and
assumptions derived from observations. I've trapped
several swarms in the isolated ridge woodlands that
are showing 'remarkable brood patterns' and excelling
in other good traits in comb building and foraging
zeal. This should not be!!!, because this is an area
that I always thought of as 'poor bee habitat' and
'bad for bees'. And then, when I place them in my
ridge apiary, they usually will out perform. This was
especially noticeable this year with the drought,
which is what actually brought it to my attention.
I understand that the secondary quality wing power may
promote counterproductive influence of the undesirable
characteristics in commercial queen rearing where
random matings of 'pre selected genetics' have to be
relied on. And commercial breeders may even be
inadvertently selecting against this quality when they
assess for desired characteristics that are found in
their pre selected stock.
From what I am observing, better random matings seem
to be showing up in the brood viability of woodland
feral queens to a higher degree. IMO, as a feral
beekeeper, the more random matings the better for me.
So I'm going (for now) with the hypothesis that the
woodland ferals might possibly have a highly developed
'wing power' or other secondary traits that can be
useful for me that may not always be prominent in bees
that have more domestic influence or located in the
lowlands where conditions are not so bad.
I remember reading a fascinating article that Kirk
Webster wrote. He mentioned the practice of trucking
some of his mating nucs in the isolated woodland hills
for mating. The reasons (please correct me if I'm
wrong) if I recall was to gain more acclimated
genetics from that of the ferals. But could Kirk also
be obtaining these 'secondary qualities' that may not
be prominent down in the Champlain Valley such as wing
power? It's certainly something to think about
considering the good success he has had in producing
an excellent bee.
In wanting to develop ferals to the highest degree in
my honeybees, I find it essential to look to those
that are succeeding with ferals or techniques derived
to capitalize on the feral genetics such as Dee, Kirk
and others for direction.
PS. On a side note:
Kirk will be speaking at Lewisburg, PA on November 11,
at the 2005 PSBA meeting.
Best Wishes,
Joe Waggle ~ Derry, PA
Small Cell Beekeeping
‘Bees Gone Wild Apiaries'
http://www.biologicalbeekeeping.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Organicbeekeepers/
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