On 15/7/07 13:03, in article , "Charlie
Pridham" wrote:


"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...


There are many kinds of a.mellifera, without looking at their DNA or
examining particularly wing venation under a microscope you can't tell.
The
colony might well have been there for generations but they won't
necessarily
be the same kind of bees - the queens could have mated with several drones
and there will have been many queens over the years.

Mary


Thanks for that Mary, I don't expect I will ever get around to getting their
DNA checked! I had always assumed that the drones were produced "In House"
so to speak but that would of course not be in the bees long term interest.
I was aware that the queens would have been replaced over the years and its
also possible that the colony may have died out and another swarm moved in
to ready made accommodations.
But I had not realised (not being a keeper of bees) that there were many
kinds of honey bee. I find their habits fascinating and when they swarm to
somewhere you can get close to that is incredible to see how they form a
rain proof shield.
I presume bee keepers try not to let theirs swarm?

There are various methods of managing a colony but I was taught that it's
desirable not to let them swarm because it reduces numbers and vigour,
according to the long-experienced bee keepers who advised me when I kept a
colony. They went through the hive a couple of times each spring to check
for developing queen cells and destroy them. I had my bee colony for about
9 years and never had one swarm because we aimed for natural 'succession',
which seems to have worked. What the bee keepers I knew do, if they want
to 'propagate' a good strain, is to take a nucleus from a colony and let it
develop a queen cell and go on from there.


--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'