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Author Topic: Breeding Biting Bee's  (Read 3918 times)

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Offline Newbee

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Breeding Biting Bee's
« on: January 13, 2016, 06:39:28 am »
Interesting article about a breeding project w/ bee's to combat Varroa mite. They're breeding bee's that have a grooming habit that combats the mite: They bite their legs off! :o

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/01/11/462391470/a-hardier-honeybee-that-fights-back-by-biting-back

- K
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Offline rcannon

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Re: Breeding Biting Bee's
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2016, 08:04:38 pm »
http://www.carpentersapiaries.com/Pages/default.aspx

Bill Carpenter's been promoting this for years. Not only are his queens top- notch , he is a great guy to deal with. He's a man of old fashioned values and morals. Good people.
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Offline BoilerJim

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Re: Breeding Biting Bee's
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2016, 05:50:53 pm »
I see they mentioned Purdue University in the article. Dr. Hunt has been breeding these type of bees for a while now.
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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Breeding Biting Bee's
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2016, 12:52:24 pm »
rcannon, have tried his queens? if so how are there honey production? are his queens pricey?
PS Hmmmm do they also like to bite/sting beekeepers. ??? Jack
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Offline Lburou

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Re: Breeding Biting Bee's
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2016, 05:14:00 pm »
Quote from: brooksbeefarm on January 15, 2016, 12:52:24 pm
rcannon, have tried his queens? if so how are there honey production? are his queens pricey?
PS Hmmmm do they also like to bite/sting beekeepers. ??? Jack
I still have one carpenter queen.  This past year, that hive made 89 pounds of honey in an otherwise poor honey year (in other words, it was a great crop from that one hive).  They are a little defensive, but no more than they should be.  It is a populous hive, and any bee will be a little defensive when the hive is four supers tall.  Can't say there were many mites, because I didn't check last summer, I went straight to treatments after finding a couple hives too close to my 3% treatment threshold. It overwintered in two deeps...It will be huge in a month or two.

P.S. The prior year, mite counts in that hive were the same as my VSH hives (between 2 & 3 %).  BWeaver hives were more in the 2% range.  HTH  :-)
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Lee_Burough

Offline rcannon

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Re: Breeding Biting Bee's
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2016, 08:34:23 pm »
I have a few of his queens and plan to get a few more this year. I like them. Good honey producers and no more defensive than anything else I have. I normally work them in shorts and a t-shirt.
Mite counts are consistently lower that some of the VSH queens I've bought. For commercial queens, they're very good.
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