Beekeeping > General Beekeeping

Bee genetics

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.30WCF:

--- Quote from: Wandering Man on January 12, 2018, 09:16:12 am ---As a hobbiests, I don’t try to manipulate the genetics. We live in an area where many, if not most, of the swarms caught have some degree of Africanized genetics. I’ve learned this the hard way. Now, if I catch a swarm I order a queen from somebody I trust, and replace the original queen as soon as possible.

I’ve had swarms start of really gentle. Then become very aggressive, once they’ve established themselves in the nuc.

--- End quote ---

It could be timing. I don’t know what’s going I. Where you are vs where I am.
I found myself in a similar situation last year/ this year. My bees had gotten awful. I mean awful. Most people would have gasses them I suppose. The instant I pulled the cover, it was a flat out attack to my veil that smelled like a banana spit topped with banana Now and Laters. It was a constant hail of bees bouncing off my jacket. This all started last year with some sate splits. They got nastier the later it got towards fall. Again this spring they were flying at me if you cracked the lid a 1/2”. If the cover was off, it was a swarm about me. Just stinging my gloves, stinging my veil, and my sleeves. 2 out of 10 or so hives were like that, but it would aggravate others with all the bananas you could smell and taste in the air.
Once it hit warm enough, right before the honey flow I gave this queens a good look at my hive tool. It was smashing.
A while later, they raised their own queens from the mean “bee’s” eggs, and I can now, a few brood cycles in, go about a normal inspection. I may even get back to veil-less in a few more weeks.

To your other point, I hear folks say that’s warms are acclimated to an area. I never saw a swarm of bees until I started keeping bees, but that’s not for not looking or being outdoors and aware. I catch my bees, and I catch my neighbors bees, what I don’t catch is wild bees that didn’t come from someone else’s hive. That swarm is probably your queen, or someone else’s last year’’s queen that swarmed.

.30WCF:
I don’t have African bees in my area, so my above post may be irrelevant, but I’ve had luck just letting them make their own queen.

RAST:
Discussion at our bee meeting last night. The instructor/moderator is a commercial queen breeder/pollinator from just north of Tampa Fl. The state does DNA testing on his breeder bees. They found a 95% AHB in one hive, he says that it is a hive that can be worked without a jacket most days and remains that way. He no longer breeds out of it to be on the safe side, but the general consensus was the state testing was flawed or records mixed up.

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