This month marks my third year of beekeeping - I am a hobbyist with two
hives in my backyard in a suburban area in central Georgia. I have
lurked on this list for most of that time, learning much from the
discussions here - I am deeply indebted to the combined wisdom of the
members of this list that you so willingly share.

I began three years ago with nucs from an established beekeeper, queened
with Italians. Last year, I decided to experiment by requeening with
Starline queens. I was quite satisfied with the performance of those
queens. But I do have a concern with them. During extraction time last
year - my first honey crop due to my inexperience and trial and error
learning of how to manage these amazing little creatures - I experienced
my first potential problems with neighbors. In the process of removing
supers, etc. I was a bit too sloppy and my bees got more aggressive than
I've ever seen them before. My six year old received his first bee sting
playing across the yard, and a neighbor was stung while out with his one
year old daughter (lots of apologies and free honey for that). If I want
to continue this hobby, I need to minimize the risk of the neighbors
getting chased by angry bees. In this specific situation, I hope I
learned enough to avoid the same mistakes next time.

Now to the concern...given that I want to keep my bees gentle, I want to
pick queens that will raise gentle bees. The Starlines are gentle
enough. I read in the archives, though, that with them being hybrids if
they are superceded, swarm, etc. subsequent generations may not exhibit
the same behaviors (and indeed, it seems that more often than not they
become extremely aggressive). I don't want to take that chance.

I like to experiment, and have read with interest the conversations
about different races of bees and the possible advantages (I know, buyer
beware..) of the Russians or NWC queens. I would be interested in giving
them a shot and seeing how they do before settling on what kinds of bees
I continue to keep long term. The real question I have, is since these
bees descended from bees in a much cooler climate that what I experience
in Georgia, how well they'd perform here. Heck, I don't perform too well
here - it's the most miserably hot place I've ever lived.

Anyone have experience with Russian and/or NWC in an environment like
central/south Georgia or Florida? How do they do, as compared with the
Italians?

John Scott
Macon, GA