Is the type of queen really that important?

[Georgia Boy]

Well I expect this to have a lot of back and forth.  :-D

Being new I don't have a good grasp on this stuff. Please guide me with your knowledge and opinions.  :evil:

Some people want an Italian. Some a Russian. Another a Carniolan. Some want something altogether different. I know her genetics are in her babies but so are the drones which she mated. Since she mates with a lot of different drones I find it hard to believe an Italian ONLY mates with Italian drones and so on. So no matter what type of queen you start with the babies will all be a mixture of the drones she mated with. It seem impossible to have a hive of one breed or the other. Won't the hive have the characteristics and temperament of the type drones she mate with the most?

So you may have started with a Russian queen but you end up with a hive with the characteristics and temperament of say an Italian because most of the drones where Italian?

In any case it seem likely that all of our bees end up being muts. A mixture of all the bees in your area.

Just like the honey it seem unlikely a type of honey is purely that type. It is actually mostly that type. Now granted if you had a 5 mile radius of cotton yes you honey would be MOSTLY cotton.  I say mostly because if there is one other flowering plant of any kind, and there is always at least one, then it isn't pure.  I have a boat load of Tulip Poplar and Sweet Privet and since they are blooming at the same time the honey will be MOSTLY one or the other but not purely one or the other.

Looking forward to y'alls thought.

Thanks David

  

[10framer]

i worked with a large queen rearing operation in south alabama in a different life.  they had been doing it for a few generations and basically the mating yards were huge and remote and their bees had been in the are for decades.  you got a very consistent product.  the queens looked like clones.  only the last segment of the abdomen had a black spot on it, any black on the second segment got culled.  so, yes you got an extremely high percentage of italian bees.  these guys were supplying thousands and thousands of queens every year to commercial beekeepers so realistically maybe 10 percent of the bees in the country had their genetics and there were pockets with much higher rates.  
does the type matter.....if you're going to be raising your own queens or letting your bees do what they want no.  if you have a specific goal then maybe.  italians do well down here in the southeast because they build up fast, usually work hard and are normally gentle.  they don't stop rearing brood so you have to plan on feeding them or leaving a lot of honey on them to survive the winter.  i think now more people are interested in "local bees".  personally, i think italian mutts are best in our area because the last swarms i was catching around 05 and 06 were all just that.  and the one i caught recently was as well.  they seem to be what survive here.  15 years ago half my swarm calls were black bees and at the time people were counting on them being varroa tolerant because they had a slightly shorter brood cycle.  well, i haven't seen any since maybe 00 or 01.  anyway, i'm rambling.  in the end i think you'd be better served with local bees if you don't want to treat a lot.  if you don't mind the chemicals and stay on top of things use the bees that best suit your needs.

[rwurster]

Started with Carnis and now currently am happy with the mutts I have raised from captured swarms.  When I need a new queen I always use a frame of eggs/larvae from a hive that built up well since I captured it and let the new queens open mate.  Queens raised from local bees do better than anything I've bought, especially after they overwinter.

[buzzbee]

Typically when you buy a queen they are already mated. The drones in your area matter not unless you have a swarm or your purchased queen swarms away leaving behind virgin queens.  The queen suppliers have worked to saturate breeding areas with drones that have the desired genetics  to mate with the virgin queens when they go for the mating flight.Thus upping the probability of getting the traits they want.The same goes with artificial inseminated queens. They pull drones from desired lineages to inseminate the queen.
So yes there is a difference, you for the qualitys you want in the queen.

[don2]

I have gave some thought about where the aggressiveness  comes in at.The queen mates with x number of drones. Right. when she lays an egg if it is not fertile, then it is a drone. right. Did you ever see an aggressive drone. no. if the egg is fertile it is a worker bee. right.
x number of drones was 15. 14 of those was from gentle colonies. all those should bee gentle, should be. number 15 came from an aggressive colony.

In what order did she mate with the drones and what order does she lay the eggs that are fertile from which drones. This we do not know.
What "I" know is that I have had colonies that changed back and forth from aggressiveness to gentle. At the time I would question myself about the weather conditions, My condition, etc. I could not draw the line.

Keeping bees for 14 years I accuse myself of noticing a few things. lol! :) d2

[10framer]

i've got a couple of hives i could have done anything i wanted to a week ago that are pretty irritable right now.  privet was in last week and they're kind of between flows right now.  field bees don't like hanging around a crowded hive.  they tend to get pretty defensive in late fall too.