# 'breeds' of bees?



## suburbanite (Jul 27, 2006)

this is a quote from another thread here:

Buckfast Bees and our Bee Club normally only orders Carniolians and Italians

I'm guessing this means there are different 'breeds' of bee. I didn't know that. Can someone comment more on it and maybe show pictures?


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## Mountaineer (Jan 1, 2006)

There are a handful of honeybee breeds (if that's what you'd call them). More like varieties, they are all the same species. Some like the carniolans are said to handle winter better, some like the African are said to be easily angered. 
I keep italians and carniolans. The carnis are in their first year here- I'm hoping and expecting they will need less sugar during spring start up.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

This is a Itialian queen. There are some color varances with in breeds too. Itialians are what 80% of the bee keepers in American keep. Mostly due to their reported gentile nature, less proplis, and good honey production. She is on old comb that has honey in the cells not capped yet.










This is a Carnloina queen. They stop laying eggs sooner in the fall or when there is a shortage of nectar for them to gather. They will start laying eggs sooner in the very early spring than Itialians. The glue every thing down with proplis and some times even any upper air vents and vents drilled in the hive bodies. They I say are not as snooty as the Itialians as they will come up to greet you when you open the hive. Note this queen is on honey again only it is capped.



















This is a SMR Carnloina Queen. We say SMR stands for slightly mite restance. They have many of the traits of the straight Carnies, we have 80% of our colonies queened with this breed. They do seem to proplis every thing up a bit less than the straight carnies. Still just as frendly though and will come up to greet you when you open the hive.











We also have some New World Carnoloina

 Al


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## Reptyle (Jul 28, 2005)

Awesome pics! Are the Carnloina queens always dark like that?


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

ok can i ask a dumb question? what is Propolis? i veagly remimber something about trees? ok so yeah i dont know lol,

again love the pics, do you have any feral queen pics? how much differint from these "Named" Queen varietys are they?


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## Mountaineer (Jan 1, 2006)

Great pics!
My carnie queens are not so dark, I wish they were! Mine are burnt orange- best way to describe it.


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## busybee870 (Mar 2, 2006)

I NEED HELP, HERES THE PROBLE, I ONLY HAD 9 FRAMES IN MY, DEEP SUPER, I GOT SIDE TRACKED AND NEVER PUT THE TENTH ONE IN, SO WHEN I CHECKED MY HIVE TODAY, MY BEES HAVE BUILT COMB BETEEN THE TWO FRAMES CONNECTING THEM, ITS A MESS. THEY HAVE NOT FILLED ALL 9 FRAMES, ONLY ABOUT 4, WHAT STEPS SHOULD I TAKE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS, ANS STEAL A LITTLE HONEY FOR MYSELF. iTS MY FIRST HIVE, AND WE ARE IN A DROUGHT, I THINK THATS WHY THEY HAVENT FILLED ALL THE FRAMES, IS IT TOO LATE TO TAKE IT ALL OUT AND PUT NEW FRAMES? i DONT WANT THEM TO NOT HAVE ANY FOR THE WINTER. PLEASE HELP


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## suburbanite (Jul 27, 2006)

Those pics are really interesting. How does a 'new world' caroiloina differ other than the queen having a lighter color? It appears as if either the queen is smaller or the workers are slightly longer in the abdomen.

When the bees come up to greet you is it friendlyness or defensiveness? How do you tell? How do they know you are a friend instead of a predator or large mobile tree?

Are there features of the workers that a gardener might recognize to tell the worker bee strains apart?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Busy bee Your not going to get any honey this year if you live in a northern state.
At this time of year here they should be well on their way to 4 frames in the second deep.
For the clean up, pull the two frames next to the vacnt space get the burr comb cleaned off those frames. Next clean any bridge and burr comb off the other frames then either space the 9 frames properly or add the tenth one. When your done with that I recommend you feed them syrup. Here in michigan you have about two months to get all the frames drawn out and full for the winter.
With a drought YOU have to provide.

 Al


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Proplis IE bee glue, Made by the honey bees to seal cracks and other drafty holes in their home from enzimes and tree pitch.Also used to glue the frames down and together. Gooy stuff when hot, brittle when cold. Antibotic can be used on cuts and scrapes.

New World Carnies are also dark with silver looking bands on their tails.

Raising up to greet you is a defensive move, nothing that removes the top of the hive to them is frendily. 

Yes I have some feral queen pictures some place on the computer. They are about the same as the named breeds. After all at one time they were more than likely a swarm from a kept hive. Yes the orginal queen that brought the swarm to the barn, tree house or grarage may be dead but her daughter still has one of her genes.

One can ID a Itialian worker bee in the field for her bright yellow almost translusent tail. Others are not so easy.

 Al


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## dcross (Aug 12, 2005)

<<How does a 'new world' caroiloina differ other than the queen having a lighter color?>>

NWC's are selected by Sue Cobey for a number of traits. The finest bees I've ever had.


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## suburbanite (Jul 27, 2006)

I looked very closely at the bees on my borage this afternoon. I think all the honeybees were Italians because the yellow was pretty intense--what photographers call 'saturated'.

I also have a bee-like animal that I think is a leafcutter bee. I don't know how to post pictures on this forum though. It is more cream and black than yellow and black, the antennae are longer, and the wings lie folded on top of each other on the back. They are slightly smaller than honeybees. Does that sound like a leafcutter?

Someone said they could be razorflies or some similar name--a kind of bee predator. Do you think they could be that? They seem to collect pollen on baskets on their back legs the way honeybees do, so I'm leaning toward leafcutter bees, but I'd like to figure it out so that if they are bee predators I can try to discourage them.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Can you send the picture to me at > [email protected]

I will also try to explain how to post pictures here.
You need a on line picture storage site like photobucket.com Or imagestation.com My favorite.
Size the pictures to 600 x 400 pixels or less.
Once you have did that and uploaded the pictures there. 
Select the picture, right click on the picture. a menu pops up. Choose properties and left click it. There will appear a list of the picturies properties. choose the ural address and high light it. then you copy that high lited section with a right click.
Come here. do the brackets









Give it a try and I will be more than happy to help all I can.

 Al


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## Sunmo (Dec 29, 2004)

suburbanite,

Is your borage still blooming? I've got lavendar that's blooming, but all I see on it are bumblebees. Sunflowers are getting ready to bloom. I'm looking at what to plant around my 10 acres to feed my bees as long as posible. I'm in Western WA, just outside Olympia--pretty much the same climate as you--a little cooler.


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## suburbanite (Jul 27, 2006)

Sunmo, this is my second 'crop' of borage, which I planted both to feed bees and because they are supposed to be good 'companion plants' for strawberries. I had to cover the first crop in January with row covers but had borage blossoms from late february to now by planting the second group. I'm finding that they take up more room than I'd like so I'm not planning to plant more--there's a ton of 'volunteers' trying to spring up anyway since the plants drop a lot of seed.

I also had sunflowers pop up in my yard starting in January, probably due to birds dropping them from someone's feeder. The volunteers were done blooming by June and a few are still standing as natural bird-feeders. I planted some deliberately in early June/late May? and they have bloomed and are now setting seed but not quite ready to cut off the stems. We don't get frost here until mid november (say the books, it varies...), so I think I can probably get in another crop of sunflowers. The commercial corn folk were planting corn up to July 15 for a November harvest. I didn't have room but with some other garden crops finishing I might try planting short season corn now, in August, because it would be on such a small scale I can probably cover it if it starts getting cold before it ripens. Last year we didn't get frost until late december, had a warm january and february, with some flooding in one of those months (I forget which), and a cold snap in march, followed by flooding rains in April. Anyway, that was last year. I may see if I can get away with it--which is probably a recipe for our frost this year to come mid-October.


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## suburbanite (Jul 27, 2006)

Whups, that was getting a bit off the bee breed topic. Sorry.

While I work on what to do about photos, is there anyone out there who can make a guess as to what my mystery beelike critter is based on the description?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Nope still waiting on the picture.

 Al


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