# New beekeeper a



## nascarwc88 (Feb 3, 2013)

What is the recommended bee for beginners?


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

The ones you can source locally.

Much ado is made about the different lines, but I'm not convinced that you are going to notice the differences right away. I couldn't tell you which is which without looking closely at them. 

The queen, and the drones that inseminate her, determine the line you have, and the queen is going to come mated. 

If the breeder breeds Russians, and their locale is populated with Russian colonies, then you're going to get a Russian queen, producing Russian brood. If the breeder breeds Russians, but a bunch of bee keepers in their area keep Italians, then you're either going to get a queen that produces Russian brood, or one that produces Russian-Italian hybrids.

If you end up with Russian stock right now, but decide you want Italians later, you can buy an Italian queen and replace yours. Within a few weeks, her hatching brood will begin to replace your Russians that are working and dying off, until you have an all Italian colony - assuming it wasn't an Italian queen mated by Russian drones, then you have the hybrid again.

On the other-hand, if you forget about the specific lines, and focus on finding a local source, then you get what they have, but you also get local support, and local supply of queens, in a hurry, when you realize you need to replace one.


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

We narrowed it down to Russians and carniolans. Don't know if that's good or not cause no experience for comparison.

We chose Russians because I found a company selling them a few hours from us and we thought ultimately getting bees local to our region was the most important factor.

Come to find out our bees actually were shipped to the ky people we bought them from, from somewhere in ga. 

So, I would recommend you ask where their bees come from when you buy. They didn't offer that info up to me til shortly before delivery when there was a problem m and they called to say it wasn't their fault, it was their supplier. So, hope that helps you fish out the details I missed.


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## GunMonkeyIntl (May 13, 2013)

The bees I buy in NC (Italians are our supplier's default) also come from GA - seems to be the common source.

When I mentioned the benefits of sourcing locally, it was more about getting them from someone face-to-face, rather than working by mail, if you can help it. 

A "good" package will only have a few dead bees lying on the bottom, maybe a single layer covering the bottom. A "bad" package could have an inch or more of dead bees on the bottom. I saw a stack of 500 very good, fresh packages turn into 20 or 30 so-so packages by the time they sold down to that level a week later. 

When you pick them up locally, you get to see them before you buy them, and often get them the same day they come off the truck. 

If you buy by mail, you get them when the dealer and the post office collectively "get around to it", and you could end up with that package that has 0.9999" of dead bees on the bottom, leaving you to contend with either sending them back, or doubting the quality of your purchase for the first couple nail-biting weeks. 

Obviously, buying by mail can be done successfully, but I'd much rather go see the man myself and buy them face to face- regardless of what line he is selling vs. what line the interwebs told me I should be raising.


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## po boy (Jul 12, 2010)

Found Mine On Craig's list and only 6 miles from my home.....


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## Ford Zoo (Jan 27, 2012)

I'm too new to have a good opinion. After researching, we found a local guy that sells a hybrid that the family has been using/breeding for 3 generations. Found him on line by googling bees/honey in the area. He's also a member of the local apiary club. 

Find a club, those people will lead you to many resources locally.


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

Double post. Dumb phone.


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

GunMonkeyIntl said:


> Obviously, buying by mail can be done successfully, but I'd much rather go see the man myself and buy them face to face- regardless of what line he is selling vs. what line the interwebs told me I should be raising.


OK. Here's a free laugh for you from me. I couldn't find anyone close to me anyway. And, I was honestly a little relieved (though scared for my mailman) that ours were coming in the mail.

I had these visions of the first hour of owning my bees ending up being a horrible viral video of my family running from our truck on the side of the highway while being swarmed by our crazy communist Russian bees.

Never fear new bee people. The bees were fine. They were totally pros. I got great use of my cameras zoom lens while I filmed my husband working with them from across the garden


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

Unless they are artificially inseminating their queens(yes they can do that) there is no way to guarantee a pure race of bees.

I raise bees full time. I have a lot of people ask me what kind of bees I have. I could save myself a lot of trouble and just say carniolans. The fact is, I don't know. I do my best to saturate the area with good quality drones, but that's not necessarily the bees she is going to mate with. If a queen is open mated(flies to mate) you really can't say exactly what you have. I may start just calling mine mutts.

I'm moving my hives up to Missouri and plan to raise a lot of queens for building nucs in the spring. I am going to have multiple mating yards and I am purposefully not going to set up drone rearing hives. I want to see what I can get from wild survivor genetics. Since they don't have the Africanized bees there that we do in Texas I don't feel the need to saturate with gentle drones. Genetic diversity is a good thing. 

The type of bee isn't nearly as important as the temperament of the bee and it's level of adaptation to your local conditions......and one that will jump on a small hive beetle like a duck on a june bug! Hate those things.


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## Dan in Ohio (Jul 16, 2005)

nascarwc88 said:


> What is the recommended bee for beginners?


I don't know about "recommended" but I am a new beekeeper and I started two hives of Carniolans this year (packages from CA and GA) and they have been very gentle and easy to deal with.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

*Mutts breed* to make it in todays world and buy a nuc as close to home as possible. Google your states bee Club to find a local club close to you. there you will find mentors, people you can call for help and persons selling nucs.

I bought package bees when I was not so educated.
People ask what breed we have and I saw Carniolan, I raise the queens which at one time were SMR carnolian's open mated with drones raised from cut outs and stuff I collected as wild stock.
Won't put up with a nasty colony so will step on a queen in a Detroit second and put and new queen in the colony.

 Al


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