# Mite biter queens



## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

I had ordered 20 queens from Bill in July 2015 with requested delivery in late March or early April 2016. He was unable to ship until late May, I'm sure due to his wife's death. When he called to arrange shipping, I told him to cancel my order and ship the queens to someone else who was on his list. My reason was two fold, first knowing how much emotional distraction comes from death of a loved one, and second from a practical perspective that I already had raised enough queens for my use. I wish Bill the best and hope he stays with it as long as he can. I'm hoping to raise enough queens in 2017 to have 60 for winter.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Glad you understood, he is good people.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

I dunno, the thought that mite mauling is directly on the mite itself. And allogrooming is just
plain O' hygienic behaviors where the bees fiercely grooming each other's butt and all over.
Maybe his mite biting bees can complement my Cordovan bees here.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

I got 5 of the queens from him this summer, lost one to beekeeper error, the other 4 are heading strong colonies. If they survive the winter I'm going to order some more.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

Cam, Looks like the website (as linked by Vance) is no longer operational. ....

edit: No wonder it's the wrong web address in post #1.
The correct address is http://www.carpentersapiaries.com/ 
and is operational.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Just tried it, site is down. Hope he's ok... he's a good guy.


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## tefer2 (Sep 13, 2009)

Works for us Cam


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Still not working for me...I just emailed him - I'll post if he replies.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Weird, just tried it again and it worked?


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I talked to Mr Carpenter right before the holidays and he is in production for the coming year. Reminds me I might as well send him a check, I am just waiting to see how big it needs to be. It is getting to be a hard winter here.


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Got this email from him:
The site is up we changed webhoster but it is up at this time. we plan on raising queens 


Thank you for your interest.

Bill Carpenter
863-632-0576
[email protected]
www.carpentersapiaries.com


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Vance G said:


> I was happy to find out that BIll Carpenter is going to be raising his allogrooming queens this spring. Losing his wife to a battle with cancer last summer resulted in some unhappy customers I know. Wishing him the best in the new season. Go to carpenterapiaries.com to learn about his stock.


I've been toying around with the idea of getting some from him. Do you notice any more aggressiveness or defensiveness in his bees compared to others?

Do you think you see any "returns" from the mite biting behavior?

Thanks!


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

No, they are typical Italian acting, gentle and not very aggressive. Can't say about the mite control. My 4 nucs had lower levels than the others in my nuc yard, but I still felt they should be treated and did with OA this fall.


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## wildbranch2007 (Dec 3, 2008)

camero7 said:


> No, they are typical Italian acting, gentle and not very aggressive. Can't say about the mite control. My 4 nucs had lower levels than the others in my nuc yard, but I still felt they should be treated and did with OA this fall.


how did you check the levels? we are getting some mite biters and are trying to figure out how to evaluate them. Did you check the nuc/hive they went into fefore the mite biter queen went in to see if they had some of the characteristics b/4 the new queen? did you treat the nuc/hive while the bees were still non miter biters but the new queen had started to lay, to get a base? else I'm going to just wing it


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Alcohol wash for the test. No, I made up these nucs when I made up the rest of the nucs in the yard, 2 frames of brood and a frame of honey. Introduced the queens the next day. brood all came from treated hives but obviously had mites. No, I treated them this fall, nucs were made in early July.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

I have got to send him a check before my kind words about him get me crowded out of the trough. I am convinced his queens are beneficial in keeping mite levels down. I wonder if any of the mite tolerant queens can stand up when I am pushing high brooding from the middle of February to August. I know the commercial Italians I got from a breeder in California were given a mite free start early spring and crashed from mites in September. I believe I have slower mite build up on Carpenters queens. They are calm on the comb and not aggressive.


jwcarlson said:


> I've been toying around with the idea of getting some from him. Do you notice any more aggressiveness or defensiveness in his bees compared to others?
> 
> Do you think you see any "returns" from the mite biting behavior?
> 
> Thanks!


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## johno (Dec 4, 2011)

I have heard some stories about Vermont ankle biters, also grooming bees. Any one with experience with these queens.
Johno


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## jwcarlson (Feb 14, 2014)

Vance G said:


> I have got to send him a check before my kind words about him get me crowded out of the trough. I am convinced his queens are beneficial in keeping mite levels down. I wonder if any of the mite tolerant queens can stand up when I am pushing high brooding from the middle of February to August. I know the commercial Italians I got from a breeder in California were given a mite free start early spring and crashed from mites in September. I believe I have slower mite build up on Carpenters queens. They are calm on the comb and not aggressive.


Thank you, Vance.
My experience with the California Italians is similar. I call them my mite farmers.


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## John Allen (Nov 8, 2016)

Has anyone checked out the new MITE MAULERS?

The queen producers of the Heartland Honey Bee Breeders Cooperative, the ones who brought you the ankle-biter queens, have found a line of bees with an exciting NEW mite-fighting trait. Someone several decades ago noticed that a line of Redline Italians were chewing the wood inside their hives. We have tracked down that line and have found a breeder who has been selecting breeder queens from this line since 2005, which came from the hives with the lowest mite counts every year. He also looked to see how many chewed mite bodies he could find in the dropped mites. 
We call them MITE MAULERS because they don't chew the legs of mites like the ankle-biters do. They chew the BODIES! It takes incredibly strong mandibles to do this and these bees really have them. What a joy it is to see torn, shredded mites under the microscope. 
http://www.mountainstatequeens.com/


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Mite mauling is not new.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

Unless there is a way to control the open mating process, I'm afraid that the individual trait might
be diluted. The redline Italians F1 might not express at all. So what's the point of raising so many mutts for?


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## BigGun (Oct 27, 2011)

beepro said:


> Unless there is a way to control the open mating process, I'm afraid that the individual trait might
> be diluted. The redline Italians F1 might not express at all. So what's the point of raising so many mutts for?



It's supposed to be a dominant trait.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

So the idea is to buy a bunch of them and keep infusing them into your stock. The trait will prove out in the laundry, and if you keep a bloodline, maintain the trait and breed it, both open mated and I.I.


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