# BeeWeaver bees



## QueenlessDrone (Nov 30, 2015)

On the site they state "Our bees have not needed ANY mite treatments since 2001. When a BeeWeaver Queen heads your colony you will enjoy chemical free beekeeping, like the good old days!" They also say: "BeeWeaver honeybees will not succumb to Varroa mite infestation or honey bee virus infections. In fact, there is no need to apply chemical treatments to suppress Varroa destructor infestation in hives headed by Bee Weaver queens."

I am curious if anyone has any queen's from them, and if they are treatment free with no mite problems with this line of bees? If they are that good I may have to get a queen to try out this year.


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

Yes I have beeweaver queens and no they can not survive the mites with my long winter.
That said they are much more resistant than the other bees I had. If you live in the south I would think they will survive it's just to long of a winter where I live.


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## Bigsal24 (Jan 23, 2015)

I got two beeweaver queens last spring. They built up well and have come out of the winter very strong. They were very frugal and had a lot of honey left over. However, one year is not long to evaluate them, and we barely had a winter this year. I'm anxious to see what happens this season. And, they're not what I would call aggressive, but they are more defensive than my other bees.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

Yes, they are mite resistant, no, they are not as mite resistant as the line of bees I have maintained for the last 12 years. They range from moderately to highly defensive defensive where highly defensive means full suit and plenty of smoke before opening. They tend to issue usurpation swarms from early August until late September. I do not recommend keeping these bees if your hives are in a public area or if children will play near them.

With all that said, I have a very good second generation queen from a BWeaver queen purchased in 2015. When crossed to drones from my bees, they gentled down and turned into a manageable colony. I plan to raise several queens from her this year.


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## Wandering Man (Jan 15, 2016)

I've got RWeaver queens, and have been quite happy, but I'm more interested in a calm bee that will cohabit with me and my dachsunds in our backyard, and I'm willing to do OAV treatment to help them along.


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

Wandering Man said:


> I've got RWeaver queens, and have been quite happy, but I'm more interested in a calm bee that will cohabit with me and my dachsunds in our backyard, and I'm willing to do OAV treatment to help them along.


R weaver didn't put their bees through the crash and recover that beeweaver did totally differant bees now.


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## Fivej (Apr 4, 2016)

Thanks for the laugh! Is there a truth in advertising law that applies to livestock, or is this just considered puffing?


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## Swarmhunter (Mar 5, 2015)

Put in 3 BWeaver last July. Thought all 3 were going to make it but one died with the last cold spell in Feb. I treated everything with Apiguard last Aug. and Sept. My mite counts were all low in Nov. We'll see how they do this year.


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## Wandering Man (Jan 15, 2016)

I like the folk who run both apiaries. Of course, their genetics are similar since the come from the same family roots, and they are all friendly and good natured.

The apiaries are close to each other, so I'd surprised if there wasn't some cross-breeding (the bees, not the cousins).

I like that the RWeaver folk are upfront about the All American bees no longer having pure genetics. And, as I pointed out above, my goals are different (calm vs resistance).

My neighbors across the street have BeeWeaver bees. I'll be watching them. 

I was a little confused about the advice they got: Start with the buckfast queen that came with the nuc, and then add a new BeeWeaver queen in September. I'm not sure why.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Start with the buckfast queen that came with the nuc, and then add a new BeeWeaver queen in September. I'm not sure why.

Probably trying to avoid a supersedure. The queen might be fine until you get her daughter as queen. Her daughter may be an F1 cross with the Texas AHBs.


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## QueenlessDrone (Nov 30, 2015)

Thank you everyone for your replies. I am on the fence to try a queen from them or not. It's only $46 with shipping, but if they are good at keeping mites at bay it may be worth it. Decisions, decisions lol


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## Dan the bee guy (Jun 18, 2015)

QueenlessDrone said:


> Thank you everyone for your replies. I am on the fence to try a queen from them or not. It's only $46 with shipping, but if they are good at keeping mites at bay it may be worth it. Decisions, decisions lol


I got 4 last year and I got one that is going to be a breeder. We have finally a warm day and her hive is looking great. Get more than one because some are better than others. Only 2 of the 4 are still with me winter has made its selection for me.


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## texanbelchers (Aug 4, 2014)

QueenlessDrone said:


> It's only $46 with shipping


Only?? I guess everything is relative...


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## ChuckReburn (Dec 17, 2013)

Michael Bush said:


> >Start with the buckfast queen that came with the nuc, and then add a new BeeWeaver queen in September. I'm not sure why.
> 
> Probably trying to avoid a supersedure. The queen might be fine until you get her daughter as queen. Her daughter may be an F1 cross with the Texas AHBs.


We run a lot of BeeWeaver stock - nothing is bullet proof but they survive better with minimal or no treatments than any other of the purchased queens we've used. We've also been selecting from that stock and raising our own queens, open mated daughters haven't had an issue with temperament. Conditions in Texas are a lot different than they were 20 years ago. The majority of the suspected AHBs we see are newbies who can't keep a smoker lit while smashing bees on inspections. While we do encounter hot bees from time-to-time, testing for AHB is no longer routinely done.

BeeWeaver makes no claim as to having Buckfast bees. They do sell early season nucs with Italian (commercial queens out of Hawaii I think) that they recommend be replaced should someone wish to have the mite tolerant characteristics of their namesake.


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## Wandering Man (Jan 15, 2016)

ChuckReburn said:


> We run a lot of BeeWeaver stock - nothing is bullet proof but they survive better with minimal or no treatments than any other of the purchased queens we've used. We've also been selecting from that stock and raising our own queens, open mated daughters haven't had an issue with temperament. Conditions in Texas are a lot different than they were 20 years ago. The majority of the suspected AHBs we see are newbies who can't keep a smoker lit while smashing bees on inspections. While we do encounter hot bees from time-to-time, testing for AHB is no longer routinely done.
> 
> BeeWeaver makes no claim as to having Buckfast bees. They do sell early season nucs with Italian (commercial queens out of Hawaii I think) that they recommend be replaced should someone wish to have the mite tolerant characteristics of their namesake.


Thanks for the clarification.


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## M.Shelnutt (Apr 24, 2021)

Wandering Man said:


> I like the folk who run both apiaries. Of course, their genetics are similar since the come from the same family roots, and they are all friendly and good natured.
> 
> The apiaries are close to each other, so I'd surprised if there wasn't some cross-breeding (the bees, not the cousins).
> 
> ...


Any updates now 4 years later?


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## Wandering Man (Jan 15, 2016)

M.Shelnutt said:


> Any updates now 4 years later?


Wow, so much has happened. The neighbor's bees absconded after a couple of years. We ended up with some bees that got pretty defensive, and rather than take the time to calm them down, we relocated the bees to a friend's property. I can't recall whether the bees were the original Buckfast's, but I doubt it. We requeened with BeeWeavers at one point. It may have been the Beeweaver bees that caused us to move the bees. We got them calmed down once we moved them, but we knew it would take time and with dogs and neighbors getting stung, we decided to act quickly and get them out.

Since that time, we bought our own 10 acres and have now expanded to 10 hives. We started out with five hives with a combination of California bred Italians and Buckfast. We lost three of the hives over the Summer and Fall. Then we got slammed with a deep freeze unusual to South Texas. The three hives survived. They were the Buckfast bees. So we now have put Buckfast queens in the 8 hives we consider to be ours. Two of the hives were caught swarms, and we've got the Italians in them. We have another swarm we are growing to be a nuc to sell and put an Italian in that one.

Right now, we dealing with flood waters on the property. It is difficult for us, but the bees don't seem to mind.


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

WOW!! you need a canoe!


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## odfrank (May 13, 2002)

I have a batch from 2016 that were very good, but that mite free description is an over the top an exaggeration. This swarm is from one of those still surviving, with Apivar treatments. Most of that batch no longer continue. I padgened the swarm and made four queen cell divides.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

This is where the pre-context is important.
The same bee can be mite-free in one place and mite-ridden in another place.
Nothing wrong with the bee - but the locations do differ.
No need to be surprised.


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## bendriftin (Nov 1, 2010)

Fusion_power said:


> Yes, they are mite resistant, no, they are not as mite resistant as the line of bees I have maintained for the last 12 years. They range from moderately to highly defensive defensive where highly defensive means full suit and plenty of smoke before opening. They tend to issue usurpation swarms from early August until late September. I do not recommend keeping these bees if your hives are in a public area or if children will play near them.
> 
> With all that said, I have a very good second generation queen from a BWeaver queen purchased in 2015. When crossed to drones from my bees, they gentled down and turned into a manageable colony. I plan to raise several queens from her this year.


It sounds like they may have more Africanized honey bee in them than they let on. Interesting the the next generation was calmer, I always wanted to mate an africanized queen with a carnika drone to see what happened.


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## Ari P (May 27, 2021)

bendriftin said:


> It sounds like they may have more Africanized honey bee in them than they let on. Interesting the the next generation was calmer, I always wanted to mate an africanized queen with a carnika drone to see what happened.


Yes you and Dr. Warrick Kerr both had the same great idea.


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