Hi Joe & All,

> How are your bees doing Keith?
>

I saw "The" Strongest colonies I have ever had come through winter this last
spring, and on the losing side I lost many colonies. The loss was from my
selecting out those that did not store up enough feed for winter but the
ones that did correctly in this area were very strong and healthy. I was
able to make a split from my stronger ones and also take a little honey from
them. My replacement colonies of Russians are doing great, made some honey
and are still heavy for wintering. I was able to breed a few queens from
wintered colonies and I have plans to send a few queens to my southern
suppliers so next spring daughters can be taken from them to come back up in
package bees so I have replacement colonies with my drones in them for
breeding enhancement for my breeding for a hardy stock for Alaska. As you
can imagine this will take several years if it is at all possible for anyone
to succeed at such a thing as Breeding a Alaska winter hardy bee. I think I
know in my mind it can be done because I have seen such strong and healthy
bees make the winter up here with no hive body insulation, only having the
top lightly insulated. I am finding bees to be very adaptable and hardier
than thought and taught.

It might not hurt to have some of that wild feral blood in my mix though.

 . ..   Keith Malone, Chugiak, Alaska USA, http://www.cer.org/,
c(((([ , Apiarian, http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney/,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/akbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Norlandbeekeepers/ ,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ApiarianBreedersGuild/

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