>          All in all I would say they are a good hybrid. I will learn more
> in my second year and find out if these traits hold true over time. If
> there any of you out there that have ars yc-1 bees please write to bee-l
> and tell us your experience it would be nice to know, also tell us your
> location.
 
Location:
 
I am in central New York. Summers are warm, but not hot. Winters can be as
low as -40 (same in Fahrenheit and Celsius) for a few nights of the year.
There is usually a snow cover from late November through mid-April. Right
now, it's exceptionally warm (40F, 5C).
 
I have 4 hives of ARS YC-1. They are the friendliest, sweetest bees I've
worked. I have used almost no smoke and only get stung if I do something
really dumb. Friendliness aside, I have found them to be poor honey
gatherers. Let me soften this a bit by saying that a few fellow
beekeepers around here have reported a very poor season and they don't
have the ARC YC-1 bees. In any case, these four hives were started pretty
late (mid June). By September, they had only multiplied enough to fill
about 1.5 brood boxes. The really horrible thing is that there was almost
no honey! I had to feed them sugar water (and lots of it) to get the
stores up enough to go into winter.
 
We'll see how well they do over winter and next season before I render
a final judgment. All in all, I'd rather have honey and stings than none
of either!
 
Conrad Sigona
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