Maud bees

Does anyone here have any recent experience of the Maud strain bees? Are there still any in their pure form and what are they like? Should they be all black, are they prolific or not, are they gentle etc etc?

Thanks

Steve

Are those the ones B Mobus used to work with?

Yes that's my understanding.

I once (a goodly number of years ago) got a couple of colonies from a guy near Inverness who said they were descendants of Bernard Mobus' Maud strain - whether they were a decent representative of that strain I can't say. That was in the days before I thought in any depth about the bees I kept and where they came from - my first couple of years of beekeeping were like that. I'm ashamed to say that I put them into two top bar hives I'd made and neither colony made it through the winter. While I had them I didn't notice them as being particularly gentle or having any other noticeably good or bad characteristics. Never had them long enough though. One thing was certain - they weren't suitable for those blasted TBHs and needless to say I've never put another bee in them. The biggest regret I have in beekeeping is subjecting those bees to those hives.

Oh and Steve Polyhive is the man to speak to about the Maud bees as I believe he worked with Bernard.

Steve knows him I think

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jon

Steve knows him I think

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I'd sooner speak to you lot if you don't mind.:rolleyes:

Thanks Drumgerry. I think top bar hives are great for Kenya. I'll leave it at that because I don't want to start an argument.

Phew! Steve's still speaking to us after that.

There's a long tale there. If only all imports heading for sensitive places went into Top Bar Hives.

Didn't some Maud bees find their way to Colonsay?

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Does Andrew A watch this forum?

Yes, from time to time and on an if-i've-got-time-in-my-busy-schedule basis.

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