what breed of bees to buy for production and disease resistance

[hooyaman]

does anyone know what would be the best breed of bees to buy for max production and disease resistance.  I have 3 hives if Italian bees that did well considering the drought we had and didn't have any problems with disease with them this year.  Was wondering what everyone else was using. 
                                                                                       Jeff

[Michael Bush]

It's hard to beat locally adapted stock.  Do you know anyone raising queens in your area?

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesraces.htm

[Hopeful]

Michael,
A b supplier tols me that I shold avoid buying bees of any breed that are raised anywhere in the South or in California.He feels those areasare where most of the problems are (Africanization, mites,disease, CCD, etc. )and it would be best to buy from a Northern stae like Michigan, Wisconsin, New England area. This woul appear to contradict the idea o local bees in regard t the bees we get from Texas for Oklahoma.

Any thoughts? I am going to be buying some bees next spring, probably about 20 more hives.

[BeeHopper]

My bees have been coming from Texas and Georgia, no problems whatsoever except for the mites. I prefer the Italians.  :-D

[KONASDAD]

There are some breeders who promote "survivor" stock which have many of the characterisitics you want. I have some Purvis Brothers Apiary queens. Google survivor queens to get list of breeders. First year and I cant offer an opinion to their ability to avoid diseases. I also have locally grown Minn Hygenics which are very good honey producers, huge brood patterns too. They get mites, but I have no other issues yet.

[beeginner]

I like russains!  My friend thats helping me is leting me bread his russains. But right now we are not selling any. We have not got to that point yet but it will be soon.


The russains do good in the cold and most of the time there a lot more calm then other bees

[Old Timer]

As far as disease resistance, it's hard to beat locally adapted feral survivors. As far as production, there is a reason that Italians are one of the most popular bee strains. My two choices.

[Understudy]

Local stock preferably feral or from feral queens.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[Michael Bush]

Catch some swarms.  Do some cutouts.  The bees are usually free or they pay you to take them...

[JP]

>Michael,
A b supplier tols me that I shold avoid buying bees of any breed that are raised anywhere in the South or in California.He feels those areasare where most of the problems are (Africanization, mites,disease, CCD, etc. )and it would be best to buy from a Northern stae like Michigan, Wisconsin, New England area. This woul appear to contradict the idea o local bees in regard t the bees we get from Texas for Oklahoma.

Any thoughts? I am going to be buying some bees next spring, probably about 20 more hives.

Hopeful raises a very good point about his concerns of attaining bees with ahb traits. I can't speak for Michael but I think his question is significant that we give feedback.

My .02, Hopeful, I get calls from the phone book, La Beekeepers, our Agricultural Department, Pest control companies, and various parish entities. If you were interested in performing cutouts in your area and got the word out through whatever  means, you will come across people who have had hives in structures or trees, etc...You can then go see the hives or question them over the phone with very specific questions to get an overview about the bees disposition. You can take some bees and send them to your state agricultural department to get the bees tested for AHB traits. If they test out negative for AHB, you have just got yourself fantastic local stock.

[Brian D. Bray]

I bought my last 4 packages of bees from California and haven't experienced any problems so far.  As far as queens go I try to stay as local as possible.  Therefore I buy my queens from Olympic Wilderness Apiaries who is located about 60 miles west of me.  Going there includes a nice ferry ride to the Olympic Pennisyla.  OWA also specializes in survival stock so I get queens that are both locally grown and hygenic--the best of both worlds.  I would make the same recommendation for where you live--find a good source of hygenic survivor queens--it is the queens, afterall, that produce the bees that fill the hive so you should experience less problems (issues) with local survivor queens.