John asks:
 I have heard/read that some Russian queens need special introduction
methods.

The Russian/Russian queens are harder to introduce (other than into another
Russian hive) than other races I have been involved with. A push in cage
over emerging brood is the recommended
introduction method by the bee lab.

To requeen a full size hive I recommend the above method in a nuc and then
once the queen is established use the nuc to requeen the hive.

A different queen pheromone has been reported with the Russian queens with
the mass spec machine.

All Russian queens are not equal. The Russian/Russian such as Purvis sells
in his "Blue Line" and I use are harder to introduce than a Russian hybrid.

All other Russian production queens  *being sold* at present in the U.S. are
hybrids. If a list member knows of a queen producer selling Russian/Russian
production queens please email contact information to me direct.

Results of my last testing of a queen producer claiming to sell
Russian/Russian stock!

A California queen breeder has simply Russian on his ad. After a year of
testing his so called Russian queens I have found they are simply Italians
and have tested the lowest in varroa tolerance of any bee I have ever
tested. All fifty hives tested with varroa pressure died. Many of the others
survived the winter but have got varroa infestations approaching threshold.

One I tested last week had 75 natural drop in 24 hours.
I have reported the results of my testing to the Baton Rouge Bee Lab and
they agree with my conclusions. The bee  he sold last year as Russian is not
even a hybrid!

I am not sure right now as to my next step but I believe an article showing
the results of my documented testing and a picture of the bill the breeder
sent saying 100 Russian queens would make an interesting article. What does
the list think?

 The "Gold Line" Purvis bee ( Georgia) is a product of years of research
with a
closed breeding system using instrumental insemination. Myself and two other
beekeepers in my area are going into our second year with the "Gold line"
bee. We got a 100% introduction with the original bees we brought back from
Georgia and  found the bee to be more varroa tolerant that the Russian bee.
The Gold line bee is easier to introduce than the Russian .

We grafted and open mated a hybrid from the queens we brought back and the
resultant queen headed hive proved (by documented testing) to be very
varroa tolerant.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

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