Hello Roni & All,

 I was wondering if
> you could compare them for me and tell me what you liked and disliked 
> about the different breeds?

I will comment on races but not on stock of certain queen breeders. Mainly 
because their stock changes from year to year. Mainly due to the use of 
different breeder queens.

I think the things written about Italians , carniolans and Russians are very 
accurate and should help make a decision.
Check the Hive & Honey Bee or ABC XYZ of beekeeping.

*All* (including Italians)  have got their drawbacks in my opinion but I 
prefer the Italians (which are the most popular bee around the world I have 
been told).

Others prefer the carniolan (of which the new world carniolan is a big 
improvement in my opinion although in some years I have been disappointed 
but thrilled in other years). I have quite a few NWC from 2007 in yards. I 
like the white comb they use for comb honey. A bit more swarmy and last 
years queens produced less honey than the Italians.

with the Italians start cranking out bees it takes beekeeper management to 
keep the bees from swarming. Many times takes beekeeper management to shut 
down brooding in late fall. They are also in my opinion susceptible to 
tracheal mites in the lines I use.

I still keep several releases of Russians and have received and installed 
some of this years release. I think the breeder said the yellow/white line 
(whatever that means). Too early to tell about those as most the bees are 
from the split.

 However the queens I looked at had good patterns and had been busy. One 
hive had the tell tale single queen cell with a good queen. I never remove 
their single queen cell. I never saw another race keep such a cell but 
insures that the hive survives if the queen dies. Most Russian single queen 
cells occur in the supercedure position but I am no expert on the Russian 
bee like some on BEE-L.

I like the Russian bee( or I would not keep buying!) but they have got 
things I like and things I do not like but all beekeeping is local .

The Russian queen breeder I received my Russian/Russian queens from says he 
has used no treatments for nine years but we both agree about the points 
which do not fit into my operation. All the Russian queen breeders I have 
dealt with have been very honest about their bee.

 In my operation the best bee is a bee which does not shut down egg laying 
with cool weather in spring. Both the Russian & carniolans do. The Italians 
do not.

You notice these things when you keep different races in different areas and 
yards. I need all hives up to maximum number of bees right now. Not in two 
weeks.

However I would recommend all races to a hobby beekeeper!  Try the Russian!

bob 

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