Hello all,

Just a quick comment or two on my impressions of the Russian bees.  I
purchased a queen last year for my backyard hive, and developed quickly a
couple of opinions.  First, I have not seen any evidence of Varroa in this
hive.  However, I lost them at the onset of  winter, probably to tracheal
mites, which I had not treated for.  This year, I'm back to the good old
Italians.  This isn't because of  the death of my previous attempt though.
I live in a small town residential neighborhood, and the Russian bees could
be markedly aggressive towards people in the vicinity.  There were always a
couple of guards that would fly out and repetively bounce off of peoples'
heads and shoulders giving warnings.  I was not stung any more while working
the bees than I have been with any other variety, although I felt they were
more wary and a larger quantity of bees would fly around and for longer
times than I have seen previously.

So this year I chose behavior over disease resistance due to my location,
and I have Italian bees behaving as I am accustomed to.  Just a single
annectdote, not even evidence perhaps, but now I've put in my two cents
worth

Ben Hanson