I enjoyed listening to your video about the different types of bees. I think it’s important to understand your bees this way I can better take care of them and know what I need to do to take care of them
Thanks Joe I really appreciate the information. As a breeder and beekeeper of your caliber your opinion counts a great deal to me. I find the genetics of the bees fascinating. I wish you well with your cross. Thanks again for taking the time to make the video.
thanks for the GREAT information! I will order a couple of queens and let you choose what you want send. ~~smiles~~ Thank you sharing your dedication and hard work.
112 degrees????!!!!!!!! Wow, you much be in Texas. I'd be in the shade as well. Great video and helpful. Thank you I love the calm bees on the frame. My bees are like that. What is that hanging in the tree?
I find up here the Italians which most commercial beekeepers produce are swarmers and are bred to max out early and quickly so that the beekeeper can produce lots of nucs and the hobby beekeeper gets disappointed when the bees they purchased to make honey swarm no matter how many empty supers you give them, commercial beekeepers are in the business to make bees not honey, it all comes down to queens, people buy good quality queens
I've raised them in the 90s and they don't. And if you don't keep buying their queens every year the daughters become extremely aggressive. They are a mixed up mutt. I like pure bred types because they breed true to type
Joe I normally raise my own queens, and there from my stock here in south Tennessee and try to stay in my region,and re queen all but just a few hives this year,wouldn’t mind trying some of your queens,I’ve got got your site in my favorite’s so not a problem to put an order in if you think you will raise enough next spring for sale and yea I will make the drive to get them,I know you stay busy with the the bees and videos,let me when a good time to contact. Thanks skinny
Interesting , Peter from Australia , you should consider writing a book Joe with all your knowledge on bees , money for you in retirement, how many hives do you actually have , title for your book "Joe's digest of bees ". I will look out for it in the coming years .
This cross sounds too good to be true. I'm impressed with your success Joe and would love to purchase 3 when they are for sale. Thanks for this informative video. (I am easy to find on facebook.)
I really don't know it's been a very stressful year with queen sales. I haven't had time to do as much testing and research as I would like. I am thinking about pulling queens on Sunday and listing them on the web site first come first serve for the first half the year.
What is your thoughts on the German bees? We had swarm of them to move in the house. We called a local bee keeper. He took one look said oh those are German bees and I don't want them but I get them out. I tried to research them. Apparently there is a hive of them around. We get a swarm every year. I would like to know more about them
The old German black bee is malifera malifera they were a very hardy bee until the trachea mites kill most in the late 80"s. They are reel good about taking care of mites. They are very hot bees. Researchers thought they were all gone but have found small pockets of them lately . I am playing around with some of them.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay basically what I gathered. They are good hardy bees that overwinter good. Have decent hygiene. They can be aggressive. I haven't found anything on their honey production. Many years ago beekeepers quit having them and went to others. Not sure if it is because of being aggressive or lack of something else
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemayI wish I could find a apis mellifera mellifera queen to buy here in the USA. You'd be the only one in North America to still have them.
When I bought my new book from the farmer he told me they were a Italian bees I did not realize that there a different type of a Italian bees. I did not purchase these bees to make me a Lotta honey Unlike Most beekeepers. I got them to pollinate my garden and now I’m going all out and purchasing and growing flowers and looking at other pollinating trees and such to feed my babies. No I didn’t miss spell bees these are my babies I am currently making sugar water for them and slowly learning as much as I can as to take care of them. I’m not saying I wouldn’t mind a little honey to give my family but never considered harvesting there honey for profit. So I guess my question to you is the Italian bees I have are they good for pollinating my garden?
Joe....the State of Georgia is part of the former USSR....in the Caucasus Region of West Asia....I have heard other bee keepers on You Tube refer to these black bees as “Russians”....they find these black bees to be very aggressive... .".on the other hand they find “Italians”to be much more gentle....
I would like to buy a Carne Queen from you any available? And you ever have anyone come learn from you? I have 5 colonies and growing but like getting educated from vets like you.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Thank you Joe, I found your site after I posted this question. Should a person get on your list now then? I am talking next year of course!
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, identified and researched at the USDA Bee Lab in Baton Rouge, is neither a line nor a breed of bee. Rather, it is identified as a “trait.” Backcrossing suggests that the trait involves a small group of genes, perhaps only two. While the VSH trait was first identified in honeybees in the U.S., current research supports the theory that the VSH alleles (alternate forms of genes) may occur in bee populations worldwide. Moreover, the VSH alleles can be bred into any honey bee population to produce VSH-based resistance. In 1992, as varroa mites were becoming widespread in the United States, Dr. John Harbo at the USDA’s Honey Bee Laboratory in Baton Rouge was assigned the task of breeding bees for resistance to varroa. In 1995 he and Dr. Roger Hoopingarner at Michigan State University discovered the VSH trait. During the next ten years Dr. Harbo led USDA research to understand how this trait works and to evaluate its effectiveness in field colonies. The VSH trait was released to the beekeeping industry in 2001.
You can have aggressive bees in any strain. If I get an aggressive hive I re queen it. If you keep doing this you will no longer have aggressive bees. I had a couple come to watch me in the bee yard today. We got talking and did not lite a smoker. Worked the bees for 6 hours no one got stung.
It has a lot to do with how you handle the bees. I had a guy call me this spring that bought a nuc from me last year. He wanted me to come and look at his hive he said no larva or eggs thought the queen was gone. This goes on for a couple of weeks I keep telling him I don't have time. So he calls me one day I am out running around I said I would be there in 10 minutes. I get there he has two 10 frame med honey supers full of bees on the ground. He goes right in the middle of one of the 10 frame deeps and yanks a frame out, I get stung 4 times on the arm. I said let me take the frames out. I went though two 10 frame deeps got no other stings. Found the queen, the reason she was not laying she had no place to lay.
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay I do requeen pissy colonies. I don't tolerate it because my wife is bothered by stings much more than I am. She threatened to light the hive on fire once, and I told her that that was not a way to not get stung..... LOL
@@LittleBitsHoneyBeesjoemay I understand. I talk to someone a couple times a month about how to pull the frames at one side and make space to not roll and anger bees.
