Now pease tell me if there is any real truth to the thought that: the Russian strain of bee is more tolerant of varroa mites, other pest and diesease? Also, are they less docile that Italian strains? If you use a Russian queen, how many generations would it take to get a hive that is more tolerant? :?
I find they are more tolerant to mites but at the same time my feral mutts deal with mites just as well. They are great honey producers in my area. They can be more aggresive I had one hive that was down right mean (think maybe they were still angry about the whole fall of communism thing) all kidding aside I was happy with mine but I had them out away from anything and could deal with a hotter hive with out too much trouble. Smoke works wonders on them though.
Keith
i have kind of come to the conclusion that some hives are hot and some are not...regardless of breed. i'd rather requeen out of a gentle hive that i have. that said, i think your tolerance of "hot" increases with experience. you also need to consider that hives may be hot or not under different circumstances. i had one early in the spring that was nasty, but it's fine now. later, when i go to pull honey, they will probably all be testy.
i think the way the russians winter over and build up in spring might be the biggest advantage.
Quote from: Keith13 on June 13, 2011, 11:48:47 AM
I find they are more tolerant to mites but at the same time my feral mutts deal with mites just as well. They are great honey producers in my area. They can be more aggresive I had one hive that was down right mean (think maybe they were still angry about the whole fall of communism thing) all kidding aside I was happy with mine but I had them out away from anything and could deal with a hotter hive with out too much trouble. Smoke works wonders on them though.
Keith
did you get yours started by purchasing a Russian Queen and putting her on a ferel colony or a colony of Italians
I bought nucs from a local dealer
Keith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_honey_bee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_honey_bee)
Russian bees use occasional brood dearths as one method of mite control. The queen will stop laying mid-way through a honey flow, letting all the brood hatch. She will then begin to lay again after a brood fast of about two-three weeks. This forces all of the adult mites to adult bees where they are often removed through grooming or fall off trying to transfer to another hose, or fall off during foraging flights. Such brood dearths reduce the mite count by up to 80%. But resumption of brood rearing quickly increases the amount of mites again.
Unfortunately many beekeepers jump to the conclusion that their hive has become queenless and purchase and install new queens needlessly.
If you have Russian stock or hybrids, the lack of brood doesn't mean the hive is queenless, it could be a brood dearth period.
Quote from: Brian D. Bray on June 13, 2011, 11:44:53 PM
Russian bees use occasional brood dearths as one method of mite control. The queen will stop laying mid-way through a honey flow, letting all the brood hatch. She will then begin to lay again after a brood fast of about two-three weeks. This forces all of the adult mites to adult bees where they are often removed through grooming or fall off trying to transfer to another hose, or fall off during foraging flights. Such brood dearths reduce the mite count by up to 80%. But resumption of brood rearing quickly increases the amount of mites again.
Unfortunately many beekeepers jump to the conclusion that their hive has become queenless and purchase and install new queens needlessly.
If you have Russian stock or hybrids, the lack of brood doesn't mean the hive is queenless, it could be a brood dearth period.
Brian, thank you so much for throwing that information in! I just bought two queens from hybrid stock that includes Russian. And you're right, currently having Italian/Carni stock, that's exactly the conclusion I might have made. I would have considered it just another round of bad queen luck.
I'll remember what you said if something like that happens and just watch for awhile. Now, I'm almost eager to see it!
Don't know if this has any bearing on the discussion but I did a cut out two weeks ago that I assume were russians.
First off they were definitely NOT the normal colored ferals I usually see. These were almost solid black with the yellow bands on the abdomen being extremely narrow almost like pin striping. I assume russian as they were less than a half a mile from a beek that has russians but I may be totally off base but that is the only known source of non italian or feral stock within miles of the site. Whatever the case they had eleven combs of some of the best looking comb I've seen in some time. Unfortunately they were terminally queenless with a laying worker and less than a pound of bees total (lots of small drones though).
I brought the few I could home and shook them out in front of mine and salvaged twenty pounds of honey.