Being in flattish countryside, I can't tell where my queens fly off to for mating. I really should put a ring of colonies each with plenty of drone brood around my home mating apiary to increase my own drone numbers.
There are a few local bees that came from my stock but not really enough to singificantly affect mating genetics considering the number of possible apiaries indicated by Beebase. (Although I have no idea whether those apiaries are empty or historic as some of them will be).
Nigel, what will you do with any unpleasant colonies in Spring ? As we know they will only get worse as they get bigger.
I get the odd colony of less-than perfect temperament. I don't like to allow these queens to produce drones so they are either given a little 'nip' in spring and united to another colony or I keep the dodgy colonies small - nuc size - by harvesting brood, so they are small enough that they are not going to raise drone brood and are easy to manage and then I use them by inserting a queencell at the appropriate time and despatching the queen.
There are a few local bees that came from my stock but not really enough to singificantly affect mating genetics considering the number of possible apiaries indicated by Beebase. (Although I have no idea whether those apiaries are empty or historic as some of them will be).
Nigel, what will you do with any unpleasant colonies in Spring ? As we know they will only get worse as they get bigger.
I get the odd colony of less-than perfect temperament. I don't like to allow these queens to produce drones so they are either given a little 'nip' in spring and united to another colony or I keep the dodgy colonies small - nuc size - by harvesting brood, so they are small enough that they are not going to raise drone brood and are easy to manage and then I use them by inserting a queencell at the appropriate time and despatching the queen.
May your bees read the same books as you do.