Choosing the right bee does not depend on the breed, but on the colony's ability to express characteristics useful for satisfying its needs: careful selection allows you to obtain strong, productive and healthy colonies.
All the lines we breed consistently present characteristics of:
- Productivity
- Docility and stability of the honeycomb
- hygiene
- Low tendency to swarm
- Good balance between bees, brood, stocks
- Fertility
- Longevity
- Excellent wintering capacity
Productivity
Let's be honest! We are not beekeepers just to produce honey, but we also produce honey to continue being beekeepers.
We are not looking for the cutting edge in productivity, it is a characteristic that taken into consideration alone can lead us astray in the choice of reproducers. We constantly balance this great attitude with many other characters that I will tell you about below.
Fertility
By working with different lines of Buckfast we have learned about different ways of managing bee laying. The shape and structure of the brood, the different honey crowns. The frames must have a compact brood, and usually what we like to see is also what makes the colony feel good. Fertility is fundamental for the good health of a hive, our commitment is to bring this character into your apiary with our queens.
Docility and stability of the honeycomb
For us it is essential to work with docile bees. Docile bees are easier to manage, they allow us to move faster and more easily, less stress for us and for the bees. In the groups of inseminated F0 sisters that we evaluate every year, we take this behavior into account, throughout the season and with different environmental conditions, marking its value on a scale from 1 to 5. Only the tamest and most visited ones are reproduced.
Hygiene
Hygiene behavior is a group defense in which dead or sick individuals are excluded. It is expressed in colonies capable of identifying larvae or pupae damaged by a pathogen. The faster the colony is in identifying and removing the infected material, the less the disease spreads in the hive. A strong propensity for hygiene is a fundamental factor in selection for disease resistance. The lines we reproduce have excellent results in HYG tests via PIN TEST.
Low tendency to swarm
Swarming is a spectacle of nature, thousands of bees taking flight together with the queen to found a new colony. However, this is not compatible with beekeeping.
Obviously it can be managed, but these are operations that require a lot of time and resources, and there is often the risk that the hive will swarm, compromising the productivity of the season. Disaffection from swarming can only be achieved through selection.
Good balance between bees, brood, stocks
It is essential that bees are able to modulate the brood based on the stocks present and the available flows. An imbalance in this relationship can lead the colony to significant stress and excessive consumption.
Longevity
Longevity is a very interesting characteristic to evaluate. After several tests we used the selection method which involves evaluation based on the relationship between quantity of brood and honey production. Long-lived bees need to raise less brood resulting in optimization of hive resources.
Excellent wintering capacity
This behavior is closely linked to longevity and thrift. Our bees are able to overwinter with good populations, managing supplies as best as possible. In our mountain territories in Piedmont, Italy, they enter the natural brood block in a fairly homogeneous way between the end of October and the beginning of November. The resumption of deposition is moderate in January and February with a boost to the first flows of nectar and pollen.
