Unfortunately this page doesn’t really cover the issue of temperament with wild caught bees/swarms. Most of the swarms we pick up are pretty good, but you will get the odd aggressive swarm which doesn’t improve over time. I have one hive that was from a swarm from a roof cavity a little over a year ago now… it’s productive… but you need to work the hive like a bank job as they get agitated extremely quickly.
still- even if some have bad traits, many don’t - and have good localised traits. And they are free- and you can always requeen if they are really troublesome.
Swarm caught or store brought- you always have to monitor the changing temperament of your bees. I am raising a swarm just now- in my little BeePlus app (excellent BTW) I have marked down the queen as ‘swarm queen’ ‘unknown temperament’ and I plan to update that description as the info emerges. To date- despite one evil kamikaze bee- they have been very good bees and the colony is expanding rapidly. I add another brood box for them tomorrow.
It’s nice to start with bee genetics that you have an idea of how they perform - my girls were bred from pure Carnies but are now mongrelized and I’m pretty sure Emerald has AMM (Apis mellifera mellifera - Black bee) mixed in. Where she was bred there are know pockets of AMM and she is throwing blacker bees.
Her daughters are well mixed in to my local mongrels and one of Sapphires daughters has thrown a Ligurian/Buckfast colour - watch this space - all good fun
I try to cull out the aggressive ones. The wild ones have not been selected for anything but survival, but that’s not all bad when you consider that for more then 200 years we have selected for all the wrong things except gentleness and productivity…
We bred for:
o Little propolis. Recent research shows that the health of the hive is directly related to how much propolis they make.
o Perfect brood patterns. Which of course bred out hygienic behavior.
o Few drones and little swarming. Which made them reproductively challenged and the can’t compete with the AHB.
o Gentleness (good)
o Productivity (good)
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I did not see German? I am veryifying since we do not import here in Hawaii what species I have. I thought we had German and Italian? Am double checking. Good research for me.
I don’t disagree with this, my comment was that the linked article didn’t mention temperament which I believe it should have included to provide some balance. I know it’s a simple process to re-queen, but the linked article suggests that plucking all your bees from the wild is a perfect solution with no negatives.
My newly acquired cut-out bees are definitely darker and slightly smaller than my existing Italian hive. Possibly Apis mellifera mellifera?
What do you guys think?
Carniolans and Caucasians can be quite dark too, and I think you have Caucasian bees in Oz
Hiya WileECoyote, the cutout I did earlier this year also has smaller dark bees which are now becoming fewer as the queen works through her stocks. I was thinking they were carniolan however I think mongrel would be more accurate. 
Beep Beep.
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Darker than an Italian, but not as black as an AMM. I would guess they are mutts.
so more propolis more or less healthy??
My girls make hardly any but they are Carnie
@WileECoyote highly unlikely to be AMM - Firstly you are in Oz secondly not many AMM’s here (UK) let alone the rest of the world.
Amm is the British Black Bee and there are small pockets here
http://www.bees.me.uk/Bees/Welcome.html
@NeuManaHui some call Amm German Black Bee
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I read the Marla Spivak article but surprised my bees don’t bring much back - there is a huge poplar 50 feet from my hive and probably many other sources of resin - the bees at the club apiary are full of proplis. The club hives suffer with wax moth, chalk brood, et al many varroa and not so good with swarming - so if my bees have a ready source and don’t use it, perhaps they are healthier bees and and don’t need it??
Propolis gathering is genetic. They don’t have the genes to want a lot of propolis. It’s been bred out.
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They are nicknamed swarmiolans in the UK too.
They are the favourite beginner’s bee as they are gentle but swarm easily.
Call me cynical but I think that trait is what makes them attractive to bee suppliers
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Amm is the Dark European Honeybee. It is native to the whole of Northern Europe north of the Alps from the Atlantic to the Ural Mountains in Russia
An interesting point:
If you have dark bees and are wondering whether there may be Amm in them look at where they store pollen.
Amm stores pollen all the way around the brood rather than in an arc between the brood and the honey up top
There is some interesting stuff here
I like bees with a little bit of attitude. Then I know they are good defenders. Too much attitude, the queen gets culled.
We haven’t brought any carniolans into the country in a century or so, so ours are probably much different than the ones in the UK. I think, though, that some of the swarming behavior of Carnis and Russians is just their explosive build up in the spring. It is a surprise to people who are used to Italians who are more consistent in their brood rearing and not so explosive in their growth after lagging behind earlier in the spring.
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