Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Kirk-o on September 23, 2007, 12:52:45 PM

Title: Midnite bees
Post by: Kirk-o on September 23, 2007, 12:52:45 PM
Has any one got any idea were you can purchase Midnite Bees ?
kirko
Title: Re: Midnite bees
Post by: Michael Bush on September 23, 2007, 01:51:21 PM
York was the producer for many years and dropped them and now has gone out of business.

Midnites where an F1 hybrid cross of a carefully chosen Carniolan line and a carefully chosen Caucasian line.  So it's not really a breed.  Even if someone kept those queens and reared generations of bees from them they would be ancestors of the Midnites  but not true Midnites.
Title: Re: Midnite bees
Post by: biglipzit on September 23, 2007, 10:10:28 PM
Anyone got pictures of these midnight bees? And also Michael where can black bees be found and are there any advantages of disadvantaged to the black bees I saw on your site?
Title: Re: Midnite bees
Post by: Michael Bush on September 23, 2007, 11:57:58 PM
>Anyone got pictures of these midnight bees?

Pretty much they are just black bees.

> And also Michael where can black bees be found

A pure blooded Carni would be black.  A pure blooded Caucasian would be silvery black.

> and are there any advantages of disadvantaged to the black bees I saw on your site?

I'm finding most of the feral survivors to be black.  I don't know how being black is tied into survival.  Many of the offspring are black, tiger striped and yellow in fairly even distribution.  The yellow ones tend to be more like the Italians while the darker ones act more like Carniolans.  The darker ones fly in colder weather, are more frugal and overwinter in small clusters.