Re-queening an Italian hive with a Russian queen has always been problematic.  Slow intros can work. Part depends on time of year and nectar flow, but mostly the problem is change in sub-species. I have discussed this in the past with Jeff Lee and Charlie Harper.  Making up a small nuc for introduction and doing a combine later, at the same time removing the Italian queen, often works.  This is only one challenge for those going to Russians.  The main issue is using the lessons and accepted practices developed in the last 150 years based on observations and experiences with Italian bees.  Sometimes these are just wrong for Russians. They have to be managed differently.  See this article "The Russians Are Coming" for some points.  The article draws from Tarpy and Lee and was reviewed for accuracy by several Russian bee breeders. 

http://susquehannabeekeepers.com/styled-8/files/page11-the-russians-are-coming.pdf

Several times a year beekeepers come to me to buy a new queen and after asking a few questions I send them home to find their perfectly fine Russian queen who has temporarily shut down brood production due to nectar dearth.  If the beek can't find the queen, I tell them to do a test: put a frame of young larva and eggs into the broodless colony.  If the bees have not created emergency queen cells within 3 days, they have a queen and don't need a new one.  In the words of Jay Smith "the bees know what they need and will make the best choices giving the situation" (paraphrased from BETTER QUEENS). 

Your area's new source of Russian packages and queens likely comes from H____ in Georgia.  The queens are Russian, but the bees are actually Italian.  Mating yards for Russians result in about 80% Russian drones which is pretty good, but the new package queens are still on Italian bees.  Supercedure is common in up to 30% of the new hives.  Could be due to sub-species change, but might be the bees know that insemination was not adequate.  R Queens from there tend to be small.  They don't cull many and production demands are intense.  If a package producer lost a lot of bees over the winter they would also delay delivery to their regular dealers (except Kelley).  Eight weeks later package delivery this year compared to most prior years!  Package delivery after the main nectar flow is over on the US East Coast means feeding syrup or losing bees.  But it increases demand for nucs!
Joe Lewis, Maryland, USA

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