Caucasian Queens

[Anybrew]

Hi Guys, I need to re Queen my eight humble hives and have been told that Caucasian Queens are the go.  All my hives are new to me and some of the queens are very rough looking.
So the questions, do any of you guys breed Caucasian Queens or know of a good breeder of them.

Cheers
Steve

[Cullz]

What do you mean that the queens are rough looking? Why do you need to requeen them all?
Sorry, can't recommend any breeders.

The Australasian Beekeeper magazine will send you a free sample copy. Might take a couple weeks. It's full of ads to buy queen bees.

[Anybrew]

The existing Queens are very small and I don't know their age.  They Hives have been left to themselves for the last two years by the previous owner.  Also the small amount of brood in the hives is very much a Pepper box type of spread.

So my idea is to requeen the lot and go from there.

Cheers
Steve

[Mardak]

Try John Covey out Jimboomba, Queensland. He sends them through the mail once payment is recieved. I recall his prices are reasonable.

[philinacoma]

Hi Guys, I need to re Queen my eight humble hives and have been told that Caucasian Queens are the go. 

What was the reasoning behind the suggestion for caucasians?

[Anybrew]

Hi Phil, the reason for the trying the Caucasians was that they are supposedly a very gentle Bee and easy to work with...apparently but I am probably wrong.

Cheers
Steve

[philinacoma]

I've heard exactly the same about Italians (Ligurian)...

[Mardak]

Has to do with the genes and lots of other factors. Temper is funny thing with some of head girls.

[Finski]

.
I had Caucasian hives 40 years ago. The origin was from Canada. Colonies were big, tame but lazy.Not eager to swarm.

Caucasians are not popular on the earth. They are used in Argentina and in East Europe. Some crossings in USA.

You want tame Italians. They are when you get a tame genepool. I have read that New Zealand Italians are tame.

But it depends how strong selection you use too weed off swarmy and protective colony mamas.
You have in Australia much wild colonies which give enough vivid semen to tame queens. It is continuous battle.

.

[Anybrew]

Hi Finski, I did more reading about what strain of Bee's to get and I decided to re queen with Italians.  One of the main reason was that there is a queen breeder about 10 kilometres from my house and its easy to get them.  They are going great at the moment and they are very golden in colour.  They appear to be a medium size bee but are quite long.  They are gentle and easy to handle.
Cheers Steve

[Finski]

Hi Finski, I did more reading about what strain of Bee's

It is interesting to try different strains. It is only way to find out are they good.
But when very different strains cross between each others, they will be perhaps swarmy.

"Angry bees are better foragers". That is not true att all . Good foraging depends on good pastures and short flying distance.

Good luck with yur choice!

[OzBuzz]

The quietest, most productive, queen I have had to date is a carniolan x Italian... An amazing queen! I can give you the phone number of the guy if you want. I am trying lots of strains at the moment-carniolan, Caucasian, Ligurian and carniolan x italian

[Anybrew]

Thanks OzBuzz, I am happy with my New Italian queens they are going great and very quiet so I will stick with them at the moment.
Cheers
Steve