yesbut 6,232 Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 You still got your black bees Roy ? Link to post Share on other sites
Bighands 1,065 Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 No unfortunately but will try to get some this season Link to post Share on other sites
Maggie James 906 Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 8 hours ago, Bighands said: No unfortunately but will try to get some this season Out of curiousity Bighands, do you mean the black bush bees? I went to the Coast quite a few years ago for a few weeks and did all the requeening for an operation, and I must say I found those black bees incredibly aggressive, and the guy was on a mission to get rid of that aggression. One time I had a site over on Banks Peninsual, and I couldn't cull out the stroppy black strain quick enough. Are we both referring to the same type of bee? Or the same bee which you appear to like? Link to post Share on other sites
Bighands 1,065 Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 I mean AMM Maggie.Like any other mongrel, or course they will be aggressive if not pure or close to it. Link to post Share on other sites
mischief 140 Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 ....and of course, I just have to ask....why? why do you want aggressive bees? Why these ones? What do you see in them that I for one wouldnt want? 2 Link to post Share on other sites
Bighands 1,065 Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 It is obvious you have never worked a pure AMM hive.How much sugar did you feed your hives this year? If you fed sugar is that sustainable? You have to learn to think outside the box.ANy mongrel is hard to work, but from my experience they work a hell of a lot harder than these italian things. Link to post Share on other sites
Gino de Graaf 1,030 Posted October 6, 2020 Share Posted October 6, 2020 8 hours ago, Bighands said: It is obvious you have never worked a pure AMM hive.How much sugar did you feed your hives this year? If you fed sugar is that sustainable? You have to learn to think outside the box.ANy mongrel is hard to work, but from my experience they work a hell of a lot harder than these italian things. Hi. Are pure amm usually aggressive? If so, I would have a few complaints from persons in orchards...lol. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
mischief 140 Posted October 7, 2020 Share Posted October 7, 2020 On 6/10/2020 at 7:02 PM, mischief said: ....and of course, I just have to ask....why? why do you want aggressive bees? Why these ones? What do you see in them that I for one wouldnt want? I wasnt being facetious when I asked this, I want to know why. I want to know what you see in these that I/we have missed. Link to post Share on other sites
john berry 5,636 Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 Since no one seems to want to say something nice about AMM bees I will give you my experience with them. They are nasty, unproductive , swarmy and disease prone. on the plus side they tend to be wasp resistant, frugal with their stores and produce beautiful white cappings. All the plus things can and have been bred into strains of Italian bees so unless you like being stung all of time there's not much point in keeping AMM's. There are societies dedicated to breeding AMM bees in England and when I was there a couple of years ago and worked with some they were every bit as nasty as a remember plus some. I doubt anyone cares about white cappings these days but it used to be quite important for comb honey. Cappings with no air gap underneath always look darker and that was definitely a genetic trait and some bees also seemed to produce whiter wax and these factors can be and were selected for. 4 Link to post Share on other sites
Alastair 8,630 Posted October 8, 2020 Share Posted October 8, 2020 1 hour ago, john berry said: produce beautiful white cappings. hey that brings back some old memories John, those whiter than white cappings they used to make. Awesome for nice looking comb honey. Nowadays I see a constant stream of people on the net with black bees, claiming they are AMM's. They often claim they are gentle, which tells me they are not AMM's. Some people have a romantic notion of AMM's, and just "decide" that their black bees are AMM's. But the white cappings, to those who remember them, could be another proof these bees are not AMM's. I'll bet these black bees do not make the white cappings like we used to see in the pure AMM's of old. Link to post Share on other sites
tristan 4,362 Posted October 9, 2020 Share Posted October 9, 2020 21 hours ago, john berry said: Since no one seems to want to say something nice about AMM bees I will give you my experience with them. They are nasty, unproductive , swarmy and disease prone. on the plus side they tend to be wasp resistant, frugal with their stores and produce beautiful white cappings. All the plus things can and have been bred into strains of Italian bees so unless you like being stung all of time there's not much point in keeping AMM's. There are societies dedicated to breeding AMM bees in England and when I was there a couple of years ago and worked with some they were every bit as nasty as a remember plus some. I doubt anyone cares about white cappings these days but it used to be quite important for comb honey. Cappings with no air gap underneath always look darker and that was definitely a genetic trait and some bees also seemed to produce whiter wax and these factors can be and were selected for. the lads at work simply do not know what fun it is to work those hives. most of them don't wear suits any more. i had one bad tempted hive today that gave my ankles a bit of a hiding, and that was a joy to work compared to what we had 20 years ago. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Popular Post john berry 5,636 Posted October 9, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2020 You really notice the temperament of bees when you get a sub optimal day for working bees like today. I like to bring all my breeders home, let them settle for a week or so and then work them in bad weather or really early or late in the day. I would normally find one or two that would get scratched off the list for being uncooperative.. I got one sting today and that was from putting my hand on the top of my veil to pull it off and there was a clump of cold bees that I hadn't noticed. I can remember working bees when there would be hundreds of stings stuck into my clothing and we had elastics bands round our gloves to stop them crawling down and stinging.There were some lovely bees 50 years ago but it was a constant battle to keep them that way. Aggression is the least desirable and least useful genetic trait you can find in a bee. 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites
olbe 238 Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 The only three things I miss about the old black bees are The wasp resistance, the stock resistance and the theft resistance , sometimes I think the bitchiness might be worth having just for those three traits Link to post Share on other sites
Alastair 8,630 Posted October 13, 2020 Share Posted October 13, 2020 30 minutes ago, olbe said: the theft resistance , sometimes I think the bitchiness might be worth having just for those three traits LOL. Time at a site of AMM's on South Island West Coast. Drive in and see skid marks in the grass someone driving away in a hurry. A lid off a hive, a comb part out, and an axe left laying on the ground where it was dropped and abandoned. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
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