Hello All,
Thanks to Mr. Harper for sharing with us his experence with the Russian
queens. Tomorrow (June 2nd.) Dr. Marla Spivak will speak at the *Northeast
Kansas Funday* in Tonganoxie,Kansas. You can register at the door. The event
is being held at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds. Sadly I will have to
miss the event myself due to my surgery recovery. If you live in the area
and need directions email me in the morning and I will email directions.
Dr. Spivak's talk is :
Comparison of Hygenic,Russian and bees bred for SMR( suppression of mite
reproduction).
My close friend and fellow *want a bee* queen breeder will be in the front
row taking notes. He better be or I will be very upset!  Both of us plan to
switch to grafting the new SMR queens this summer. Both of us have been very
happy with our hygenic queens but we both plan to try a artificially
inseminated SMR queen. I plan to share my successes and if any
disappointments with the list. I also plan to share my fellow beekeepers
sucesses or failures with the list also but haven't told him yet!
My friend has raised over one thousand queens from his hygenic artificially
inseminated breeder queen. All of her offspring had a trait I found most
interesting which I have talked about before. Her offspring flew two full
hours earlier than bees in our care from all other queen breeders. She was a
Carniolan queen. I must note my Italian hygenic queens flew at the same time
as the other queens. This trait alone has great implications in Apple
polination and honey production.
Bob
Ps. Yes Allen you have convinced me to get on the SMR bandwagon! Sorry I
gave you and Aaron my negative views after the ABF convention. I try to keep
a open mind on these things and had didn't want to get my hopes up again to
be disappointed later.  To late now I am excited about exploring the SMR
theory.