Russian Bees

Seabee8 · July 23, 2015, 08:58:17 AM

Forgive me if this topic has come up before but being new to this forum I couldn't figure out if there was a thread.

I have been reading about the hardiness of Russian bees, especially for those of us in colder climates. My question is anyone in America and Canada using Russian queens and if so where can one get one?

KeyLargoBees · July 23, 2015, 09:35:40 AM

Just remember...Russian Blues are a type of house-cat......don't paint your new queen to match ;-)

Colobee · July 23, 2015, 10:30:51 AM

I know I've read about people keeping Russians but can't direct you to a source. I'm sure someone can. From what I recall they are a bit temperamental about having the queens accepted sometimes. 'Good winter survival & mite resistance rates. There was mention somewhere of a conference in Ohio on Russians. You should be able to find a source for them with a little digging or from a more informed respondant.

Good luck!

mikecva · July 23, 2015, 12:01:47 PM

www.kelleybees.com/Shop/19/Queens-Bees/Package-Bees-Queens/4721/Russian-Queens

This is one source. -Mike

Smertrios · July 23, 2015, 01:15:02 PM

Have you tried kelleybees before mikecva? Reports from buyers on other bee keeping forums are not saying nice things...

mikecva · July 23, 2015, 01:53:09 PM

No. I have not tried Kelley Bees So I can not endorse them. I only saw they were advertising Russians. Sorry

Hi-Tech · July 23, 2015, 02:00:53 PM

I live near Kelleys and while many people have had some horrible issues with them, I have not. I have only been there once (no problems) and mail ordered 3 times (again, no issues) but all of those people complaining obviously had issues so who knows? Maybe a phone call to them first to get an idea of what they have and what they can do..

Colobee · July 23, 2015, 09:49:20 PM

After reading/researching a bit, I'd be disinclined to try Russians. They appear to get nasty if they cross with Buckfast. 'Ain't gonna happen...

HillBilly2 · July 24, 2015, 01:00:27 AM

Quote from: Colobee on July 23, 2015, 09:49:20 PM
After reading/researching a bit, I'd be disinclined to try Russians. They appear to get nasty if they cross with Buckfast. 'Ain't gonna happen...

I would be interested in learning more about aggressive Russian hybrids. Is it just true with Buckfast, or are other crosses aggressive too?

biggraham610 · July 24, 2015, 01:03:49 AM

Quote from: Colobee on July 23, 2015, 09:49:20 PM
After reading/researching a bit, I'd be disinclined to try Russians. They appear to get nasty if they cross with Buckfast. 'Ain't gonna happen...

Thought about Russians once........ Not now....... Got different Black Beauties.

Michael Bush · July 24, 2015, 01:21:51 AM

I had some back in the early part of the 00 era. I didn't hate them. I didn't love the. They all died from Varroa...

http://www.bushfarms.com/beesraces.htm#russian

mikecva · July 24, 2015, 12:20:29 PM

Had and have Russian bees. They are slightly better coming through the winter but very slow in building new comb (or mine are just lazy). Since I use a light amount of smoke when going into the hive and sugar water when I just open it to peek, I have not had any problems with nasty bees. (Note also I do not stay in the hives after I did what I went in for and I do not bang or otherwise startle the bees, this is just good management.) -Mike

Rurification · July 24, 2015, 03:12:30 PM

I got Russian queens with 2 packages from Kelley this year [and had no problem except what they say is 'delivery date' is really 'the day we ship out date']. One of the packages requeened early this month on their own. Both are very slow drawing comb, foundationless. I got them because our winters are highly variable [We regularly see 50-60 degree changes in temps within a couple of days, back and forth all winter] and I'd heard that Kelley's Russians overwinter well.

qa33010 · July 30, 2015, 01:22:36 AM

Had Russians about six or eight years ago. Problem was they were the only ones in the area. They are now mixed in with the other bloodlines in the area. I had to stay on them a little more but not badly. They headbutted more but not mean to me. Now I have local mutts that have some of what ever has been brought in and survived mites, SHB and everything else, especially me. I think there used to be a website that listed Russian breeders. Don't know if it is still around.

Jim134 · July 30, 2015, 07:43:15 AM

These are on the places you can get Russian queen bees that are 100 percent certified. The russian breeders are DNA test all time for breed purity.

http://www.russianbreeders.org/members.html

It will be next to impossible for you to keep the breed purity.
( unless you are isolated from other bee keepers)
This is why I would suggest you replace queens every 3 years.
When you get tired of manageing your Varroa mites and want to manage honey bees I would suggest russian queens.

BEE HAPPY Jim 135

mikecva · July 30, 2015, 02:35:49 PM

I found my paperwork. The last three years I got Russian packages I got from Kelleybees, the queens were also from Kelley (sorry for the earlier response, I claim age stupidity.) I have not had problems except the post office personnel were really skittish about there being 9 bee packages. They thought there was at least 1000 bees in each package. Guess how they felt (when I picked the bees up) when I told them how many bees there really was in each package.

By the way that was the first year, no comments the next two years.

-Mike

Joe D · August 01, 2015, 12:46:45 AM

I got a Russian queen from a fellow beek a couple of counties from me back a few years ago. I had Cordovan bees in a TBH, they swarmed and left some bees, now queen. I put he Russian in there they are still doing fine, and as easy going as the rest of my bees.
The fellow I got her from is Heath Sumrall, from Sumrall MS, he is the fire chief. He has a couple of farms, he raises Russians at one and Cordovans at the other.
Down here I don't have to worry about the cold that much, just the heat. Ha

Joe

Packrat3wires · August 18, 2015, 12:07:15 PM

I picked up 3 Russian Queens several weeks back from Kelley's. It takes awhile to acclimate them to a new hive but I was without queens in 3 splits. So far so good. You keep BOTH corks in for a week to let them get use to the different style pheromone of the Russians before popping one cork out with the candy side. In all about a 2 weeks total time to get queen released. I am now on the "do not disturb" period of another 2 weeks with a feeder filled on top. Lots of activity outside but won't know if the queens survived until this weekend. Kelley's bees were great to work with (though a little pricey at $33 for each marked queen) and the queens looked very healthy. They are much slower to introduce but I wanted to see how they did compared to my other bees.

KeyLargoBees · August 18, 2015, 01:18:43 PM

Glad to see a positive experience with Kelly's

jalentour · August 19, 2015, 10:37:30 PM

Try this site: http://www.russianbreeder.org/

I bought a Russian with a package two years ago. It has survived winters and I split two nucs off it this summer.
They are not as gentile as Italians but no big deal. I do not think she was a pure Russian.

I plan to add a Russian queen to my apiary in 2016. If I can arrange it I'll purchase a nuc over a package or individual queen.