Keith said:
I have personally been impressed by the Russian Queen Project even though
the queens I have been evaluating are crosses with my queen suppliers own
stock.

The nwc/Russian hybrid gets good marks from  myself and the California
beekeepers but does not carry the varroa tolerance of the Russian/Russian
(reported from one of Calif. largest queen breeders testing  of the 2003
Russian hybrid).

In order for the Russian/Russian bee to  skip a varroa treatment or two the
whole yard needs to be Russian/Russian. When hives with bees ( non Russian)
which are very susceptible to varroa are placed in the same yard then
according to Charlie Harper ( fall 2003) and others the Russian/Russian has
a hard time maintaining low varroa levels. The reason Charlie H. gives is
drifting bees & drones from infested hives.

A couple queen breeders  are open mating their Russian hybrids with lines of
bees which many of us know from experience ( my own experience)simply can
not handle a very high varroa mite load (and TM load) which has been making
those Russian hybrids unable to handle varroa ( and tracheal mite TM over a
long period) without chemical treatment.

 A point tossed at me over and over by commercial beekeeper friends:

They say:
"Why would I want to requeen all my hives with a unpredictable hybrid bee
with a bad rep for aggressiveness, low honey production and has to be
treated as often as my other lines?".

When you remove the ability of the Russian bee to survive tracheal mites and
varroa without treatment then the attractiveness of the Russian bee fads
fast.

To sum things up:
After one season I can say I do not believe the best honey producing Russian
hive last year would come within a super of producing what my average
Italian hive would BUT I would trade a super of honey for a bee which did
not need to be treated for tracheal mites & varroa and winters cheaply
saving me money on winter feed. Hmmm.

A few final thoughts on the Russian program.

 This years breeder queens sent by the Baton Rouge Bee Lab ( as per Charlie
Harper) are the last of the imported *never seen before* Russian/Russian
line.

Next year breeders will come from the best of the best of lines previously
sent  from the lab in order to fine tune the line ( picked   from six yards
of Russian/Russian owned by Chalie Harper). In other words a queen breeder
which has been getting Russian breeder queens each year for the last six
years has the same material to select from as the Baton Rouge Bee lab ( *
if* he/she maintained each color line from each year until now)

Keith said:
 These Russian/cross bees produced more honey last season than other strains
used and wintered better than others also.

It is good to hear a good report on the Russian cross. To be honest Keith I
have had plenty of bad feedback from beekeepers which have tried the Russian
cross on a small scale. Many beekeepers I respect their opinion have pinched
off the heads of many Russian hybrids and requeened after the first year.

I have still got mine and will evaluate the Russian/ Russian & Russian/nwc
for at least two more seasons.

Keith said:
Like you I would like to evaluate the pure Russian in the environment I keep
bees in.

I have never heard of a case of a Russian or Russian cross not wintering
well. ( without a doubt the Russian bee takes winter in stride!) The Russian
might work into your program and breeding program. I believe the Russian bee
comes out of winter on too small a cluster for the commercial beekeeper
wanting a huge amount of brood for splits & to make nucs to sell. ( but only
my opinion for my area )

The primary difference between the Russian/Russian and the Russian hybrid is
in being able to tolerate varroa. A very large California queen breeder has
given me 24 hour natural fall drops which would indicate to me the
nwc/Russian cross could go two years without a varroa treatment BUT the nwc
(New World Carniolan) is not your average bee  in most queen producers
open breeding drone source.
The NWC is  a product of years of a closed breeding program. If I was to be
forced into using a hybrid my choice would be the Russian queen open mated
to nwc drones from a nwc project breeder queen.

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::