Hello Allen & All,

>Well, I don't personally know, but this is the buzz in commercial circles.
These guys try every stock under the sun and decide what they like.

The speaker at the ABF convention in Austin on Russian bees is a bit shy to
post on BEE_L but we had a discussion on the subject by email. His
conclusion
on the Russian was (and is also mine) that with the Russian bee you will
without doubt need to treat less for varroa and the bee does not seem
effected by tracheal mites.

We agreed on most things two beekeepers which had experience with a race of
bee would except for two points. Maybe the beekeeper will post especially if
I have not got his position in the discussion correct.

His position as I understand it:
1 the Russian bee will produce as much honey as the Italian bee.

my position:
Maybe in his bees but was not what I saw in four years of testing but with
selective breeding perhaps some strains will

His position:
The shut down in spring with any adverse weather (while the Italian bee is
still laying eggs) did not cause his Russian bees to be out produced by the
Italians in the study he cited.

my position:
A week of loss queen laying cost me around 14,000 forager bees for the honey
crop ( 2000 a day times 7 days.) Which in my opinion hurt my honey
production.

There were many things I liked about the Russian bee. The two things I
didn't like above are the main reason why the Russian bee is not in all my
yards.

>For example, though, the Russian stock failed to make a huge hit due to
slow
build-up for almonds, and muted response to simulative feeding.

I think the above is an honest assessment. Jerry Brown ( Adee family) used a
Russian cross in 2005  and seemed happy with the cross. I do not know what
the cross was. Both Jerry & Richard Adee requeen yearly so I do not know if
still using Russian genetics in their queen line.

Bob


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