Bob Harrison wrote:

> Recently only about 50% have been requeening. This year every pure Russian
> hive which swarmed requeened. Perhaps the genetics are not as screwed up
on
> the Russian bees?

My Russians have been worse about requeening than the western bees.  For the
second year in a row I've lost half my Russians (spring packages) that
started well and died by August.  No mites on the sticky boards, either.

For example, yesterday I opened a hive that was full of bees, with an active
queen carrying this year's paint mark, and all twenty frames were absolutely
empty.  I mean absolutely:  no brood, no eggs, no honey, no nectar, no
pollen, no queen cups, no raid debris, no nothing but a lot of demoralized
bees and a queen on empty drawn combs -- and with a full hivetop feeder of
heavy sugar water that had been sitting there for three weeks (itself the
replacement for another feederful that had sat there untouched for three
weeks previously).

Not mites.  Checked every two weeks with sticky boards.  Ne'er a mite.  Good
spring start, lots of brood, good patterns, even made some surplus.  Then
the old lady goes on strike and nobody cares.  The pantry's empty and nobody
takes the trouble to climb up to the punchbowl on top.  I have always
thought that two-legged Russians were a bit weird; these little six-legged
ones can match them.

If it weren't for their mite resistance, I'd quit them.  But I don't want to
go back to chemicals (hobbyist) so I'll restock with Russians from a
different source and hope for the best.  Third time's the charm, they say.

Walter Weller

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