Citace:Originally Posted by B+. View Post
Many years ago, I had Buckfasts from Brother Adam and Peter Donnovan. At the time I was impressed and sought to breed from them. It didn't work. Even the first generation was vicious. I put it down to the influence of the drones
There may possibly have been some improvements from that time by the current breeders. Currently all my Buckfast F1's have been as good tempered as their daughters (we are talking dozens, which I know is small numbers for a full assessment as per a bee breeder). Most are as fecund, a couple have been even more fecund! Starting material is Island mated Buckfast queen ....damn expensive creatures but worth every euro.
I've had one bad F2 which was no worse than my average locals and miles better than some of the worst. Many of the F2's (about another half dozen or so) have been fine although perhaps not as fecund. I have a couple fo F3's which are basically mongrels but they still retain enough of the good characteristics of Buckfast to keep them. Not done F4's.
You are right in that it may be drone related. I'm fairly isolated and use several open mated Buckfast from other sources in production colonies, this may have swayed or delayed the aggression a bit with a lot of the mating's being to other Buckfast drones.
I'd be interested in hearing others experience and what their starting material was, i.e open mated or isolated queens.

Citace:Apis mellifera mellifera:
"Neither dark or Italian bees are considered to be aggressive however the hybrids of the two are often aggressive by nature causing beekeepers to spend much time and effort in developing and maintaining non-aggressive gene pools."

Apis mellifera carnica:
"Daughter queens resulting from cross-breeding with local strains can be particularly aggressive."