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  • From: "Brian and Lanette Fee" <fee436 AT att.net>
  • To: "'Randall Austin'" <ra41717 AT gmail.com>, <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] buckfast bees
  • Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 21:40:06 -0400

Thank you so much Randall.  As always, you are a fountain of knowledge!

Lanette

 

From: Randall Austin [mailto:ra41717 AT gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2014 8:40 PM
To: Brian and Lanette Fee; ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [ocba] buckfast bees

 

Lanette,

I have had Russians and liked them. They aren't really all that much better with respect to handling varroa mites but I like their thrifty nature. They stop laying in dearths and overwinter quite well with small colonies. These are also traits of Carniolans, but Russians have a more sexy image. Russians have a reputation for being a bit more feisty than regular ol' bees, which I think is probably due to the breeders selecting for production and mite tolerance over gentleness. But the ones I had weren't "bad", they just weren't as sweet as most of the Italians I've worked with.

There really isn't any such thing as Buckfast bees anymore, at least not in the United States. The Buckfast bee strain was founded on northern Italian bees, which have a more leathery coloring than their southern Italian cousins. Brother Adam (at Buckfast Abbey in England) had an elaborate method of bringing in outside genetics on an ongoing basis to instill hybrid vigor into his production stock. His foundational stock essentially remained the northern Italian type, but they weren't used for production. Brother Adam died about 20 years ago and his breeding program mostly died with him. There are still Buckfast-based bees in Europe, especially in Scandinavia, but we cannot import bees from there. Weavers in Texas used to sell what they called a Buckfast bee which originated from drone semen they had imported, via special permit, from Buckfast Abbey in the 1960's. They quit that charade a few years ago, admitting that their breeding lines had mingled so much that it wasn't meaningful to call them something different. Note that now all Texas bees have a good dose of African genes so they should be avoided on that basis alone.

I seem to recall somebody in Pennsylvania and another place in Canada claiming to have Buckfast bees but given their rarity and the passage of time since the original stock was imported, I don't see how they can have a predictable set of traits that make them any different that the average commercial bee.

I would advise that your brother pass on the so-called Buckfast bees and try some Russians. Google "Russian Bee Breeders Association" for a list of vendors. Or try some Carniolans; Strachan Bees in California is one of the largest suppliers of those. Walter Kelley retails Russians, Carniolans and Italians, as well as Cordovans (strikingly colored Italians).

Randall Austin



On 7/13/2014 6:35 PM, Brian and Lanette Fee wrote:

Hi,

     Does anyone have any experience with Buckfast or Russian bees?  My brother is interested in a different strain of bee, but he has school age children who help him work the bees.  Can anyone tell me first-hand experience about the temperament of these two strains?  I only know of here say.

Thanks,

Lanette




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