# Caucasian Bee



## aricilik (Jan 11, 2015)

Turkey is the only race Caucasian bees made of insulated production in the region. Homeland of the Caucasian bees are generally north-east. Macehal region of the province of Ardahan and Artvin provinces in our country are pure Caucasian bees in Posof. These places are provided protection by the state, in any form is prohibited outside the entrance to the local bee.

Caucasus can give general information about the bee as follows:
Figure, the cover is similar in terms of size and makes the Carniolan bee. The color of the kit is dark brown spots which are seen, but on the first belly ring. Caucasian race is the longest race in the known language that has bee races. So it appears to be more of a high-altitude alpine flowers which reach places.
With honeycomb docile and calm on being the most typical characteristics of the breed. Caucasian bee is high yield of puppies and turn the main bee colonies are strong colonies of Caucasian family occur. But the circuit to be the strongest mid-summer. Son-making tendency is weak. They use a lot of propolis. Honey yields are higher.
source http://www.anaari.gen.tr/kafkas-arisi.html


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## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

That video is very cool. Could you attempt to explain (translate) what the two beekeepers are talking about please? 
I think it may be interesting.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

I have been tempted for years to purchase one from Washington. Not pure queens but as close as we can get.


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

This is my second year running 30 Caucasians purchased from Sue Cobey in the spring of 2014. I liked how they produced and wintered in our area enough that I included them into my queen rearing program this year. They seem to be really in tune to what is going on with nectar flows even more so that my carniolins. This means with strong nectar flows separated by a dearth I've needed to provide feed to keep them laying during the dearth so they are still booming when the second flow hits. As far as honey production, they have been great and easily compete with the Italians and Carnies. Coming out of winter into spring they are by far my heaviest hives as they don't eat nearly as much over winter. When a nectar flow starts in spring they take off and its pretty amazing how I can look into a hive and think the queen isn't up to speed only to come back on the next visit and see her laying like a freak. The only problem with this is they can miss our early spring maple flow because they aren't prepared for it while my Italians produce pretty well on the maple. The original 30 queens were/are very gentle and slow moving on the comb which make them a joy to work but about 15-20% of queens grafted from them have tended to be a little testy but I just squish those ones. They glue everything together like I've you wouldn't believe. You really test your frames construction when prying them out of the box breaking the ones that aren't up to par. 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with them.

Mike


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## aricilik (Jan 11, 2015)

aunt betty said:


> That video is very cool. Could you attempt to explain (translate) what the two beekeepers are talking about please?
> I think it may be interesting.


I want to work on the video, but I'm not very good english


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## aricilik (Jan 11, 2015)

Tennessee's Bees LLC said:


> I have been tempted for years to purchase one from Washington. Not pure queens but as close as we can get.


Unfortunately, if you are familiar but Turkey can give.


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## aricilik (Jan 11, 2015)

mmiller said:


> This is my second year running 30 Caucasians purchased from Sue Cobey in the spring of 2014. I liked how they produced and wintered in our area enough that I included them into my queen rearing program this year. They seem to be really in tune to what is going on with nectar flows even more so that my carniolins. This means with strong nectar flows separated by a dearth I've needed to provide feed to keep them laying during the dearth so they are still booming when the second flow hits. As far as honey production, they have been great and easily compete with the Italians and Carnies. Coming out of winter into spring they are by far my heaviest hives as they don't eat nearly as much over winter. When a nectar flow starts in spring they take off and its pretty amazing how I can look into a hive and think the queen isn't up to speed only to come back on the next visit and see her laying like a freak. The only problem with this is they can miss our early spring maple flow because they aren't prepared for it while my Italians produce pretty well on the maple. The original 30 queens were/are very gentle and slow moving on the comb which make them a joy to work but about 15-20% of queens grafted from them have tended to be a little testy but I just squish those ones. They glue everything together like I've you wouldn't believe. You really test your frames construction when prying them out of the box breaking the ones that aren't up to par.
> 
> All in all, I'm pretty happy with them.
> 
> Mike


Thank you for your evaluation You have touched on a nice spot.


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## Joel (Mar 3, 2005)

mmiller said:


> This is my second year running 30 Caucasians purchased from Sue Cobey in the spring of 2014.
> All in all, I'm pretty happy with them.
> 
> Mike


Mike, obviously Sue was interested in them because of the inherrent mite resistance having come originally from the Caucasus's an area where varroa mites have been present forever in bee lives. Did you have any observations related to varroa? When you speak of grafted queens I am assuming you are talking about daughter queens from the original Cobey queens open bred with yours and other local stocks? Is that notably higher than your experience with other non Cobey queens?


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## scituatema (Aug 30, 2014)

Mmiller,
Have you noticed that bees reduce their hive entrance with propolis starting around middle of fall ?
They reduce the size of hive entrance dramatically during cold season. 

Caucasian bees did not live with varroa mites for forever and have no resistance level difference with other bee races.


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

Joel said:


> Mike, obviously Sue was interested in them because of the inherrent mite resistance having come originally from the Caucasus's an area where varroa mites have been present forever in bee lives. Did you have any observations related to varroa? When you speak of grafted queens I am assuming you are talking about daughter queens from the original Cobey queens open bred with yours and other local stocks? Is that notably higher than your experience with other non Cobey queens?


Hey Joel, I run about 200 colonies so I only spot check for mites in each yard but all colonies get treated. I can't really give a completely accurate answer in regards to their mite resistance. I will say that the 3 yards that have the caucasians "seem" to have lower mite counts. But I only check about 25% of my colonies so this is only a baseline. 
Yes when I was talking about daughter queens from the Cobey queens being a little testy. I have seen some aggression occasionally with the carniolins but definitely in smaller percentages.


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

scituatema said:


> Mmiller,
> Have you noticed that bees reduce their hive entrance with propolis starting around middle of fall ?
> They reduce the size of hive entrance dramatically during cold season. dcsw


Oh yes, they propolise everything. No all will close the entrance down but some of them do. Some of them will completely close the upper entrance and close the bottom down to just a couple bees space. Some of them propolise everything beyond anything you can imagine to the point of having a lot of difficulty removing frames while some aren't any worse than carnies.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Something to try with A.M. Caucasia bees is to build a top box that holds maybe 20 or more propolis traps vertically, leaving bee space between each trap. The traps are like plastic queen excluders, you freeze them after they have been glued up, bend them, and the frozen propolis cracks off rather easily. Thaw the plastic traps, and replace them into the hive. This vertical arrangement of traps could really bring in some money from propolis production. 

Another suggestion - glue a metal strip on the rabbet ledge for the frames, and use "frame savers" over the "ears" of the frames before you need them (build them with the frame savers from the beginning!). This should make your frames separate more easily, and the frames last longer. 

Also, since you KNOW you will be prying hard, make a cross-piece on the notch of your J-hook tool to distribute the fulcrum load over a wide area. This way it does not dig in to the wood of the top bar of the neighboring frame or the box. 

I use both types of frame tools. The "L" type is used to break the propolis by placing the short bent part between the top bars and twisting it 90 degrees to the frames. The "J"-hook type slides under the frame hanger "ears" until the notch sits on the neighboring frame and pries the frame up. I usually go down the row breaking them all free on both ends with the L-type tool before changing to the J-type tool and lifting out frames to inspect. Quicker that way.

I am surprised to hear that Caucasians make a lot of honey! Most older conversations about them describe them as lazy, lackluster performers that almost never sting. They seem to make a priority of propolis over honey for wintering at altitude. I had some Causians for a summer, but they were killed when a spray rig poisoned my bees.


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## mmiller (Jun 17, 2010)

kilocharlie said:


> Something to try with A.M. Caucasia bees is to build a top box that holds maybe 20 or more propolis traps vertically, leaving bee space between each trap. The traps are like plastic queen excluders, you freeze them after they have been glued up, bend them, and the frozen propolis cracks off rather easily. Thaw the plastic traps, and replace them into the hive. This vertical arrangement of traps could really bring in some money from propolis production.
> This is an interesting idea. I do run propolis traps on top which they do a good job of filling up. It doesn't keep them from gluing everything else together though.
> 
> Another suggestion - glue a metal strip on the rabbet ledge for the frames, and use "frame savers" over the "ears" of the frames before you need them (build them with the frame savers from the beginning!). This should make your frames separate more easily, and the frames last longer.
> ...


I imagine its from the Carniolin influence. Sue brought back drone sperm for these. Therefore these aren't pure caucasians.


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