Keith said:
I feel from looking at many strains that all I am looking for is in the
Russian bee, what ever descent they are. Nobody can give a real definitive
answer to what they are.

If you are using the pure Russian Primorsky ARS strain as imported we might
not be able to say exactly the pedigree but we can say for sure what they
are not which is Italian & carniolan other than a very small percent in some
queens and none in others.

DNA of many Russian queens backs up what I said above but the overwelming
proof is in the fact these bees are difficult to introduce into a hive of
Italian & carniolans and can be superceded at any time until the hive is
completely the Russian queens  own daughters (approx.8 weeks).

Mass spec analysis of queen pheromones has shown the queens imported from
Primorsky do indeed  give off a different queen pheromone( Dr. Hoffman 2002
2003).

As a beekeeper which may raise and sell pure Russian queens *in the future*
from my stock and a lead person for another beekeeper which is selling pure
Russian instrumentally inseminated breeder queens and pure Russian
production queens the Russian introduction problem is real.

Why you ask?

Because queen breeders only guarantee live delivery and a pure Russian
queen. Introduction and guarantee the bees will not supercede her before the
colony is converted to all Russian can not be guaranteed.

Most failure in the initial introduction is simply the beekeeper not taking
enough time and attempting introduction in a strong hive of older bees
instead of a nuc.

Like many things which we discover later on in a project the difficult
introduction the the pure Russian is now considered fact. Those selling
Russian queens are not quick many times to share the above as could hurt
sales.

Myself and the Russian queen breeder I am working with will be honest with
you. We always say if you are not willing to work through the Russian
introduction problem then perhaps our line of survivor bee which is easy to
introduce would be a better choice.

Many U.S. queen producers have dropped the Russian line due to the example I
am about to give. At a bee meeting the following story was shared by a
beekeeper.

The beekeeper tried to introduce three different Russian hybrid queens
unsuccessfuly in three attempts in a strong hive of non Russian bees without
success before in desperation the queen producer sent a non Russian queen
which was introduced successfully.  Four queens were shipped .  In private I
spoke with the above beekeeper and he said he introduced the Russians like
he did his other queens by pushing a hole in the candy and sticking the
queen cage in. I explained the method will not work with the pure Russian
because of the pheromone difference but might at times work with a Russian
hybrid but I would not want to take the chance.

Pure Russian/Russian production queens are difficult to find in the U.S..
Until the supply meets demand the Russian/Russian queens should be given the
the time consuming introduction neccessary.
Beekeepers are on waiting lists to get these queens. Try to make every queen
count.

Pure Russian package bees could be avilable in future but not enough pure
Russian hives exist now to shake Russian bees from so most likely if you
order a Russian hybrid package the bees sent are not Russian which causes
introduction problems due to the  difference in queen pheromone as explained
above.

Reading my articles is the only way to get the big picture as the above only
is like reading the front cover of a book and thinking you have read the
book.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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