Hi,

> Members of the new Russian Breeders Association are pledged to use  
> no medication or treatments in their breeding program.

What about the scope of apiguard used in a portion of your colonies,  
was this just an experiment that was for some reason allowed outside  
the pledge.

I am currently breeding a strain of bee in Alaska where I used a  
Russian base stock. I chose the Russian bee after looking at and  
trying many other strains and found them have the best basic traits  
for surviving my location. another prominent beekeeper up here in  
Alaska has tried Russians and claim they are worthless as a useful  
strain but I believe that the fault of Russian bees is probably a  
management issue and not a fault of the strain. Some traits that are  
claimed to be negative are positive in my view point. Some people can  
not see the forest for the trees, and some people can not see the  
benefit of Russian bees for what is perceived as negative traits. Same  
thing goes for African bees. Many beekeepers are looking for a super  
nice bee instead of a bee that can survive.

 > I use a combination of Pierco and Dadant wired wax in the brood  
chamber.
 >

Well the pierco may not be small cell on an average but it is smaller  
than abnormal.

So how long have you been 100% not treating your Russian Bees?

God Bless,

Keith Malone

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