I'm curious if you think it will be hard to get Carniolan genetics in the future? Everywhere I look and go in my state the mainstream beekeepers have carni/italian mut crosses. They are wonderful and do well. But every time I go get new bees they always have very light looking italian queens in them. I've not gotten any dark queens in them recently getting new bees, 100% golden queens (which are pretty still...but not dark). And it seems like when I look at what people are selling they are still saying its a cross or an italian but not selling anything dark looking, like classical carniolan look queens. This makes me wonder if I'll have to reach harder to get the overwintering abilities of carnis down the road after the genes get watered down even more? Or it could be the queen suppliers and others are keeping the dark looking queens for themselves? (This latter seems to be a good possibility...I don't see a lot of honesty in a lot of the beekeepers that I'd encountered so far in my state. There was a lot of games and trickiness in nuc suppliers this year.) In a cold winter state, it would be hard to do well w/o good overwintering genes w conservation. Well curious what you might say. Fun to hear from you.
Hey. Sorry for the late response. My guess is that the majority of queen breeders are in the warmer states so they're not caring about the carniolan genetics. Have you tried any of the small, local breeders? I was told it's borderline impossible to get anything but a queen with a combination of genetics because the bees have been cross breeding for so many years here. Some breeders artificially inseminate, but I think most just allow the queen to go out and mate. It definitely is faster!
@@BeekeepingMadeSimple I like to hear from ya. So its fine even if its late. Hope your are staying healthy also. Thanks very much. I'm interested in insemination. It does really sound fun to control the genetics that much. But I have clumsy hands. LOL.
I have never seen the bees disturbed by apivar. Definitely the formic and hopguard can. The apivar, I think, has a faint odor, but nothing so strong that it disturbs the bees.
Thank you.
I'm curious if you think it will be hard to get Carniolan genetics in the future?
Everywhere I look and go in my state the mainstream beekeepers have carni/italian mut crosses. They are wonderful and do well. But every time I go get new bees they always have very light looking italian queens in them. I've not gotten any dark queens in them recently getting new bees, 100% golden queens (which are pretty still...but not dark). And it seems like when I look at what people are selling they are still saying its a cross or an italian but not selling anything dark looking, like classical carniolan look queens.
This makes me wonder if I'll have to reach harder to get the overwintering abilities of carnis down the road after the genes get watered down even more? Or it could be the queen suppliers and others are keeping the dark looking queens for themselves? (This latter seems to be a good possibility...I don't see a lot of honesty in a lot of the beekeepers that I'd encountered so far in my state. There was a lot of games and trickiness in nuc suppliers this year.)
In a cold winter state, it would be hard to do well w/o good overwintering genes w conservation.
Well curious what you might say. Fun to hear from you.
Hey. Sorry for the late response. My guess is that the majority of queen breeders are in the warmer states so they're not caring about the carniolan genetics. Have you tried any of the small, local breeders? I was told it's borderline impossible to get anything but a queen with a combination of genetics because the bees have been cross breeding for so many years here. Some breeders artificially inseminate, but I think most just allow the queen to go out and mate. It definitely is faster!
@@BeekeepingMadeSimple I like to hear from ya. So its fine even if its late. Hope your are staying healthy also. Thanks very much.
I'm interested in insemination. It does really sound fun to control the genetics that much. But I have clumsy hands. LOL.
Have you noticed when using APIVAR the queen stops laying or slows down?
I have never seen the bees disturbed by apivar. Definitely the formic and hopguard can. The apivar, I think, has a faint odor, but nothing so strong that it disturbs the bees.