Only seven years of bee keeping under the belt, but my Father has come to the conclusion, and I am inclined to agree with him, that the most successful hives are built by local bees, hatched in the area, say a 100 mile radius for the sake of argument.
Nucs and imported packets of bees and Queens have not been as healthy, over the long haul, as the local swarms and nucs from the immediate area.
What is the experience here?
Are you happy with bees shipped in from other areas or do you find the local bees are better acclimatized to local weather and pest conditions?
I have Buckfast which although are not Welsh are from a similar geographical area and they do very well.
I have one local hive and they are less good tempered
I don’t speak Welsh either…and get along
That’s the understanding I have as well. Unfortunately for me with a back yard hive I don’t have a choice. In talking to some of the guys from the local club as well as emailing with some of the pest guys who do bee removals there pretty much is no such thing as a wild bee in Arizona that is no Africanized. In my further research an Africanized hive is just not going to be well suited for a back yard hive at all. I would need some land where they would not be disturbed for the native bees to be successful here. However our local/native bees are extremely good producers and very hardy, not prone to disease or pests. I guess I need to start saving some money and looking for some dessert land to put some local bees. In the mean time I am going to try working with some Italian or buckfast in the backyard.
I can see what you mean. In an urban area African bees would pose more risk of causing issues with neighbours.
We are fortunate that here in Nor Cal we have not (yet) come under the onslaught of the Africanized bees. Our ‘wild’ bees are just successful descendants of imported breeds.
My intent is to catch a swarm next spring, somewhere in the area.
