We had a beekeepers meeting last night and one of our members reminded me how I started him out in beekeeping. I sold him 6 nucs in 2000 he has now 200 colonies from those 6 nucs he does not treat his bees at all I do supply him with queen cells. I do not treat my bees at all loses are tolerable 15% to 25% the bees that survive need to be split or they will be in the trees. So some of us no treatment beekeepers are sill around and keeping bees. You need to find a resistant bee first for it to work. You will not find it in the old lines of bees if the genetic diversity is not there you will not find it no mater how many colonies you play with. With Russians you cannot mix them with other races of bee in the same yard that also includes your close neighbors. The drifting bees from those colonies are a problem for Russian bees and drones drift quite a bit. -- Harper's Honey Farm Charles Harper 421 Louveteau Rd. Carencro, LA 70520 www.russianbreeder.com [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] (337) 298 6261 *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm