I am new to BK and wanted to know if a New Guy should start out with 2 races of Bees? I was thinking of one Russian Queened and 1 Italian Queened.
Or should I just stick to one Race?
You should buy 2 of the strongest nucs you can find for the money. They will requeen almost every year. When you buy them, they are open bred, so the bees you get are only 50/50. Then the first new queen will only produce 25/75. You will have mutts in a couple years, so why spend more money now. Just buy mutts.
Quote from: iddee on December 19, 2013, 05:17:33 PM
You should buy 2 of the strongest nucs you can find for the money. They will requeen almost every year. When you buy them, they are open bred, so the bees you get are only 50/50. Then the first new queen will only produce 25/75. You will have mutts in a couple years, so why spend more money now. Just buy mutts.
I'd agree with what iddee is saying...When I started researching getting into beekeeping a little over a year ago, I initially thought deciding on a race of bees was a big important decision. However, everyone started offering the type of advice that iddee is giving here. I bought two Nucs of survivor stock mutts and have grown to 10 hives through their swarming, catching other swarms, and cutouts.
Couldn't be happier with my bees...I love my mutts! :-D
You want two similar hives IMO, that way you can compare the progression thruout the season. Also you can keep them equal strength easier.
Yup, local mutts are the best way to go, they know what the seasons are, and you don't have to spend so much time 2nd guessing them, as a nubee your going to have plenty of that on your end :-D
I never thought of it that way. You need something to compare to.
I will go with the same race bees.
start with italians or go with iddee's plan. when i got back into beekeeping i considered russians but everything i read seemed to indicate they swarm a lot. that's hard to fight when you are experienced and too challenging to start out with in my opinion. italians usually perform well in the south and they shouldn't be all that swarmy or aggressive. chances are any mutts from the south east are going to be mostly italian or mostly carni depending on where your area.
Quote from: labradorfarms on December 19, 2013, 05:06:53 PM
I am new to BK and wanted to know if a New Guy should start out with 2 races of Bees? I was thinking of one Russian Queened and 1 Italian Queened.
Or should I just stick to one Race?
Something you might like to read
http://www.nsqba.com/home.html (http://www.nsqba.com/home.html)
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
If your in a local bee club, talk to the people there and see if you could get your hives from one of them. Check out there bees and the way they treat. You would get local bees at maybe a good price. I got started with hives from an old beeks estate. Boxs were in bad shape, but the price was great. They were a mixture of breeds and over the years I have got Cardovan Queens and Russians Queens to requeen with. Good luck to you.
Joe