Nick Shilliff asked about the Russian strain of bees and how they did in the
battle with mites and wintering.

Frankly I can't say.  I had a neighbor intentionally poison the bees robbing
a stack of wet supers in October and attribute heavy winter losses to the
incident.  All my hives (50) within flying distance of the poisoned supers
are dead this spring.

I had two Russian queens in an out yar.  Both survived the winter, but
winter's not over here yet.  I think by the time the weather breaks, one
will be doing well, one will be a dink.  As far as mite counts go it's too
soon to know.

I have not been impressed by the Russians so far, but I'm not ready to write
them off.  As Shim put it, the Russian queens are an experiment in progress.
Unfortunately this will be a rebuilding year for me and I won't have the
hive numbers to do much experimenting.

Aaron Morris - thinking about moving....