Dave wrote..."I sympathize with Tom having just done this myself. For the first time in 50 years I had to kill a hive this year. Buckfast in origin, allowed to supersede to maintain the genetics, turned into the worst hive I've ever handled, and I have three more not quite so bad." Dave, were these from Canadian breeders or from Texas (before the embargo)? I have heard from a lot of hobbyists that their Buckfasts from Texas can be extremely mean...not always, but sometimes. Moreover, out of several queens introduced, usually only 1 or 2 are mean. I've been mentally blaming this on Africanized drones, although both Weavers maintain their drone saturation precludes this. The Texas Dept. of Ag. has been examining workers from Weaver open mated queens and maintains that they have not found any Africanized evidence...but I still wonder. I personally used Buckfast queens for several years (in the 60's) and found them very gentle and extremely prolific. With good New World Carnolians being extremely resistant to tracheal mites, I do not see why any beekeeper in the Northern states (or Canada) would want to use Buckfast produced in Texas and take any risk concerning the Africanized traits. Any thoughts from others? Lloyd