On Sun, 9 Aug 2009 19:24:42 -0500, Bob Harrison <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Give the Russian queen room to lay ( frame of empty drawn comb) and she will
>usually stay home. The fastest  way to get her to swarm is with foundation.
>A common mistake beekeepers make is to try to open the brood nest for the
>queen to lay by removing frames of brood and replacing with frames of
>foundation. The queen stops laying while the bees draw the cells. After a
>day or so she is able to fly! Off to the trees!
>
>Whenever a laying queen slows egg laying she is moving towards being able to
>fly. The two most common ways are not being able to lay because the bees are
>plugging her laying area with fresh nectar or she has filled all her cells
>with eggs/ larva. Think open brood nest!


I am only a hobbyist beekeeper with a dozen hives (and at the moment seven
nucs to overwinter), and I hesitate to post among the giants.  But I read
Bee-L every day and find great info here, so thought I would share my small
experience with Russians, because the quote above really hit me with an
"Aha!" moment, and maybe the info will help someone else.

My queens have come from a variety of sources and I currently have two main
hives of Russians (probably really Russian-heavy mutts, since the breeder is
no longer in the RBBA) that I started from packages last year on undrawn
Pierco foundation.  Last year they drove me nuts, making queen cells like I
have never seen before.  One tried to swarm, but the queen was clipped and
they actually returned to the hive (I got lucky).  I was really surprised
that a new package would try to swarm in the first year.

This year, they are mature and in three deeps of drawn comb.  Also this year
I decided not to bother them and just set up swarm traps, letting them do
what they want to do.  Guess what?  No swarms.  Well, not yet, anyway.  I
did have a few swarms from other strains (overcrowded and/or working on
undrawn foundation), but not from the Russians, which is the opposite of
what I expected.

I know my data is, at best, anecdotal, but going forward my plan is to only
add drawn comb frames whenever I steal brood for nucs from ANY of my hives
(Russian, Buckfast, NWC, MH, Sooper Yooper, mutts).

By the way, we have had a very, very wet summer here in New Hampshire, and
my Russian hives were the only ones to make any surplus so far.  I really
like them, don't find them particularly aggressive and have four nucs going
with new, purchased queens for next year.

Thanks for all the great information to be found here.  Now, I'll go back to
reading Bee-L.

Bill

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