Musashi asks about what determines the temperament of a queen or bees which
are daughters of a gentle queen, and what to expect from Midnites, and
Buckfast offspring.
 
A drone is a direct descendant of the queen and has all of her
characteristics.  A daughter queen being from a fertilized worker egg is
the offspring of the queen and the drone or drones with which she mated.
Since the queen can be mated by as many as 15 drones, according to the
books, her daughters will reflect some of the genetics of one or more
drones.
 
Midnites are four-way crosses of Caucasian queens and are actually hybrids.
 Hybrids, and the daughters of Midnites, will lose their gentleness in the
first or second generation.  Experience confirms this.  I'm not so sure
about Buckfasts because the ones I've purchased didn't last long enough to
requeen themselves.  From testimonials I've heard from many beekeepers over
the years, I'd say to expect ill tempered bees in the first generation.
 
I think you will probably wait and see because there are a lot of genetic
influences which can't entirely be predicted.
 
Queen breeders can raise gentle stock, sometimes, because of many years of
selecting for that trait.  Sometimes the stock isn't so gentle not because
of genetics but because of colony environment (skunks, high temperature,
hive location, lack of a honey flow, robbing in the apiary causing
defensive behavior)  and sometimes because of forage environments like bees
foraging on mint at 90-100 F.  They are mean when foraging peppermint or
spearmint.  That might also happen on other plants in the mint family.  I
don't know for sure.
 
James C. Bach
Yakima WA
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