Anyone bought / read this booklet yet ? What did you think of it? Contains quite a few of my photos and four of my articles so am naturally curious about how it has been received.
Sent me a free copy and I'll happily review it.
Valid points Nigel,NigelP wrote: ↑08 May 2019, 17:03
The big problem with breeding mongrel bees (as any competent geneticist can tell you) is they simply do not breed true. There is far too much variability in their offspring. With no control over other beekeepers drones etc you may as well toss a coin most of the time.
I can think of far better strategies to improve local stock , but they would involve all beekeepers in one area agreeing with one another
It's something that is not taken into account by many beekeepers. The variability of the local bees temperaments over small distances. I find this fascinating.AdamD wrote: ↑08 May 2019, 18:43
The area I have is, I suspect, fairly benign as far as a breeding area is concerned and I have a reasonable number of colonies so there is a better chance of my bees being involved in the mating mix. A few of my queens are also with other local beekeepers so that helps too. And I don't need to worry about inbreeding as there will always be other bees around that are not mine! I am not involved in a beekeeping group, however I agree that it would help improve consistency if I could get a few local beekeepers to work with me. But, get two beekeepers and the result is three opinions .....