I'm not talking about the cold war.  My question of others is if  anybody
trying the new Russian queens this year has experienced aggressive (okay,
defensive) behavior more pronounced than with their other breeds.  A friend
of mine and I, both in different towns, have tried Russians for the first
time this year, along with many others, I'm sure, after each losing previous
bees to varroa disease.  So far they are quite healthy, productive, clean,
and doing well in my back yard.  However, my friend called after being stung
multiple times with a concern about overly defensive behavior, and this past
week when I did an inspection, I noticed what seemed to be a large number of
guards bouncing off of my veil, and the following day, as I was talking to a
neighbor, a couple of bees came out of the blue, almost 50 feet away and
started boucing in our hair.  I'm not panicking or anything, but am indeed
concerned about overly defensive behavior in a quet residential town where
the council can respond rather quickly to residents' concerns over such
things with legislation!

Any thoughts?

Ben Hanson
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