John asks: I have heard/read that some Russian queens need special introduction methods. The Russian/Russian queens are harder to introduce (other than into another Russian hive) than other races I have been involved with. A push in cage over emerging brood is the recommended introduction method by the bee lab. To requeen a full size hive I recommend the above method in a nuc and then once the queen is established use the nuc to requeen the hive. A different queen pheromone has been reported with the Russian queens with the mass spec machine. All Russian queens are not equal. The Russian/Russian such as Purvis sells in his "Blue Line" and I use are harder to introduce than a Russian hybrid. All other Russian production queens *being sold* at present in the U.S. are hybrids. If a list member knows of a queen producer selling Russian/Russian production queens please email contact information to me direct. Results of my last testing of a queen producer claiming to sell Russian/Russian stock! A California queen breeder has simply Russian on his ad. After a year of testing his so called Russian queens I have found they are simply Italians and have tested the lowest in varroa tolerance of any bee I have ever tested. All fifty hives tested with varroa pressure died. Many of the others survived the winter but have got varroa infestations approaching threshold. One I tested last week had 75 natural drop in 24 hours. I have reported the results of my testing to the Baton Rouge Bee Lab and they agree with my conclusions. The bee he sold last year as Russian is not even a hybrid! I am not sure right now as to my next step but I believe an article showing the results of my documented testing and a picture of the bill the breeder sent saying 100 Russian queens would make an interesting article. What does the list think? The "Gold Line" Purvis bee ( Georgia) is a product of years of research with a closed breeding system using instrumental insemination. Myself and two other beekeepers in my area are going into our second year with the "Gold line" bee. We got a 100% introduction with the original bees we brought back from Georgia and found the bee to be more varroa tolerant that the Russian bee. The Gold line bee is easier to introduce than the Russian . We grafted and open mated a hybrid from the queens we brought back and the resultant queen headed hive proved (by documented testing) to be very varroa tolerant. Sincerely, Bob Harrison :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::