Post by beenatural101 on Jun 8, 2010 20:58:02 GMT -6
For a list of the types of honey bee, we need a long one. For us who chose to help the western honey bee out with a box to live in, and a little tlc, the best type (italian, carnie, caucasian, bucky, any hybrid or odd strain from yugoslavia, whatever) of bee to have in this messed up world is one that will survive the mites on their own for 2 or 3 years. See, varroa is like an exponential infection, especially when you not only consider the damage physically done by the bloodsuckers, but the diseases they vector in to the hive. Insidious viruses that show little or no sign of themselves until one week you are suddenly looking at a ball of greasy looking bees when you open the hive. Or thousands of deformed wings, or half your new fliers crawling around on the ground unable to fly. Or worse.
See the little bugger reproduces within the cell, under the capping with a pupae. The adult and immature mites feed on bees. The longer they have to breed in the cell, the more mature the mites will be when the bee chews it's way out. More effective breeders. So if 1 mite (these are estimates) reproduces 1.3 times(avg due to mortality) in the brood cycle, you are screwed. Remember earlier I said that the bees pick up these mites from everywhere? They bring more than one in any given day from the outside I am sure. So why does it take 2 years or more for some hives to collapse under the pressure? Well, bees are all different, and different diseases or combination of disease are sure to wipe out a colony faster than others. Then you have the "hygienic" bees, vsh, survivor stock, whatever they want to call them, their trademark leavings are uncapped pupae half gone. This is pretty evident when you are looking at a near perfect solid sheet of brood. Culling the infected pupae on their own. They smell whatever and take it out. Africanized bees are more hygienic this is known. What is not known is if this behavior ties in with their hallmark aggressiveness.
Personally, I have not seen many bees other than mine, and those were roughly equivalent in defensiveness. Any day can be a treat with any bees. Nothing like my first hive though, they made me want to tape up my gloves after they got bad. But I do know I never saw a hive beetle or mite, until the queen died off and was superseded by a dud. Way too late in the season for drones here, she never laid an egg. So I had to panic order my first queen. My first "fancy bee".
The bees I have now are different, especially the one hive. She is not nearly as placid as any of the others, except the first. But she doesn't sting more, well not me anyway. It is just by watching these girls I can see some attitude. They flew earlier from a smaller cluster when it was colder. All winter. She started with a small number of bees after a cold winter away from frames of honey, and has blessed me with a split. They seem more likely to actively engage a wasp or bumblebee or whatever snooping around the nest, reaching out in numbers if need be, but usually it only takes 3 or 4 bees for the job. Sure they get eaten away from the hive, but all bees do, and I have never seen many beetles in there, even when it was frighteningly weak looking and the other on was strong, I had like 2 beetles when I looked, The big hive had 30 , and a lot more bees to cover the same space. I helped out anyway, I don't like things in my hives that aren't bees.(squish)
I like these bees for lots of reasons, They are lemon yellow, mostly italian I reckon, but are more rightly mutt bees from the southwest. The drones are hilarious looking, all big and shaggy. Yes shaggy, never seen shaggy drones before, never thought of it till this spring when I saw my first. Thought something was wrong with him at first, but he was gone so quick I knew he was fine, off with a loud buzz into the wild blue. Fuzzy white fuzzy. Also a few of the workers have some really long hairs on their backs. Not white though, like yellow mowhawks, not a patch but a stripe. Might be 1 out of 20 with this. Odd to my eyes. But theres a lot of different bees out there, and this girl I got this queen from must have some different ones for sure. Come to think about it that is why I paid more to ship the bug than the bug cost. Wanted different bees. Maybe do some good to spread out some genes too, and maybe get some good bees for here, which is a good place for bees maybe half the year, but the other half is brutal some summers, well most. The summer here and the bloom or lack of it is why we have these little half hives, some call em, which is a box (deep) and a half (med) standard. No towers of bees here.
I am paying close attention to this one and the others, and am getting more varied strains as I type practically. I can feel the genetic diversity of my bees is going to be as diverse as I can make it, but I really want to use this one gal for a momma for a bunch of queens, and see what shakes loose. Oh but a spring away!
The best bee is a live bee.
See the little bugger reproduces within the cell, under the capping with a pupae. The adult and immature mites feed on bees. The longer they have to breed in the cell, the more mature the mites will be when the bee chews it's way out. More effective breeders. So if 1 mite (these are estimates) reproduces 1.3 times(avg due to mortality) in the brood cycle, you are screwed. Remember earlier I said that the bees pick up these mites from everywhere? They bring more than one in any given day from the outside I am sure. So why does it take 2 years or more for some hives to collapse under the pressure? Well, bees are all different, and different diseases or combination of disease are sure to wipe out a colony faster than others. Then you have the "hygienic" bees, vsh, survivor stock, whatever they want to call them, their trademark leavings are uncapped pupae half gone. This is pretty evident when you are looking at a near perfect solid sheet of brood. Culling the infected pupae on their own. They smell whatever and take it out. Africanized bees are more hygienic this is known. What is not known is if this behavior ties in with their hallmark aggressiveness.
Personally, I have not seen many bees other than mine, and those were roughly equivalent in defensiveness. Any day can be a treat with any bees. Nothing like my first hive though, they made me want to tape up my gloves after they got bad. But I do know I never saw a hive beetle or mite, until the queen died off and was superseded by a dud. Way too late in the season for drones here, she never laid an egg. So I had to panic order my first queen. My first "fancy bee".
The bees I have now are different, especially the one hive. She is not nearly as placid as any of the others, except the first. But she doesn't sting more, well not me anyway. It is just by watching these girls I can see some attitude. They flew earlier from a smaller cluster when it was colder. All winter. She started with a small number of bees after a cold winter away from frames of honey, and has blessed me with a split. They seem more likely to actively engage a wasp or bumblebee or whatever snooping around the nest, reaching out in numbers if need be, but usually it only takes 3 or 4 bees for the job. Sure they get eaten away from the hive, but all bees do, and I have never seen many beetles in there, even when it was frighteningly weak looking and the other on was strong, I had like 2 beetles when I looked, The big hive had 30 , and a lot more bees to cover the same space. I helped out anyway, I don't like things in my hives that aren't bees.(squish)
I like these bees for lots of reasons, They are lemon yellow, mostly italian I reckon, but are more rightly mutt bees from the southwest. The drones are hilarious looking, all big and shaggy. Yes shaggy, never seen shaggy drones before, never thought of it till this spring when I saw my first. Thought something was wrong with him at first, but he was gone so quick I knew he was fine, off with a loud buzz into the wild blue. Fuzzy white fuzzy. Also a few of the workers have some really long hairs on their backs. Not white though, like yellow mowhawks, not a patch but a stripe. Might be 1 out of 20 with this. Odd to my eyes. But theres a lot of different bees out there, and this girl I got this queen from must have some different ones for sure. Come to think about it that is why I paid more to ship the bug than the bug cost. Wanted different bees. Maybe do some good to spread out some genes too, and maybe get some good bees for here, which is a good place for bees maybe half the year, but the other half is brutal some summers, well most. The summer here and the bloom or lack of it is why we have these little half hives, some call em, which is a box (deep) and a half (med) standard. No towers of bees here.
I am paying close attention to this one and the others, and am getting more varied strains as I type practically. I can feel the genetic diversity of my bees is going to be as diverse as I can make it, but I really want to use this one gal for a momma for a bunch of queens, and see what shakes loose. Oh but a spring away!
The best bee is a live bee.