Actually Ruttner said the Primorsky bees were predominately A.m. macedonica
( Ruttner 1988) when he was asked by the USDA-ARS at the time of the first
import.( published in ABJ at the time) Many have tried to label the
Primorsky bees as both caucs and carniolans.

I have used over 400 Russian/Russian queens since the start and although the
bees have some redeeming qualities none are even close to the prolific
Italian bees I keep or even come close in honey production. None have ever
wintered in a cluster big enough to sell into almond pollination.

That said I think the Russian bee is an excellent bee for those beekeepers
which do not want to use treatments on their bees and are content with the
smaller winter clusters. Also those not worried about not getting maximum
honey production.

Supercedure was bad with the Russian/Russian queens I received from the
Russian queen breeder program last year but the bees wintered ok.  Russian
queens on 3 frames and Italian queens on 9 frames of bees . Italians triple
the amount of brood right now.

Despite what many Russian and carniolan keepers might say the *gap* is too
wide for the explosion which those keepers say will happen and those races
will overtake and pass the Italians .Toss a pollen patty or a gallon of
syrup on an Italian hive and the Italians will convert into bees.

I always keep carniolans around and am content with their production. Super
less per hive on average.
Especially when drawing comb honey. Beautiful white comb.

People say you can not teach an old dog new tricks. I say in bees the
Russian bee is a hard bee to teach new ways. many times the Russian bee will
turn its nose up at both pollen patties and syrup.

I am grateful for the Russian import and those beekeepers like Charlie which
have kept the program alive.

Others on BEE-L might have far different observations than mine on the
Russian bee.

bob

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