>  I would like to get some open mated queens.

Maybe you could get a queen in the spring from Randy Oliver.

>Are there no other Yugo lines in the US to add new genetics and improve the
old beekeeper's bees?

Yugo's are simply Carniolans so a cross with a NWC would be a decent
outcross.

Despite what a few people have said the Russian bee (as imported) is not  a
carniolan. However if I was to pick a bee to cross with a Russian/Russian I
think a NWC would be my pick.

>This eighty something year old must be of some hardy stock.

He's full blooded German like my wife.

>  Try to pursuade him to switch to shallows or at least mediums.

All of us have tried but he is set in his ways!

He also does a small truck farm for vegetables. Hot as it is today I bet he
is out working in his garden. Like an old bee I expect he will be found dead
in his garden or bee yard one of these days. he is doing what he wants to do
so we (and his family) leave him be. His mind is as sharp as can be. I have
never seen a senior moment with the old beekeeper.

Until I came around he did not know what PMS was. He thought it was
foulbrood. So he culled all those hives. By removing those hives (with high
varroa load showing PMS ) he was in fact selecting for varroa tolerant bees.
By burning the equipment he was getting rid of virus contaminated comb.

bob


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