JC
12-04-2006, 09:41 PM
Who sells packages of Russian bees?
If you already have some colonies, I suggest making splits in the spring or summer. Buy the video “Hive Splitting or the book “Increase Essentials if you do not know how to make hive splits. Buy some pollen patties from Mann Lake and start feeding these pollen patties to your Russian bees in the last week in January. Order some pure Russian queens that were mated to pure Russian drones. When you introduce the Russian queens, do not allow the bees to eat the candy. Put tape over the candy end and release the queens after 3 or 4 days if there is no aggressive behavior towards the queen. I introduce my queens into small nucs to get better queen acceptance. If you do not have 5 frame nucs, a double screen from Rossman Apiaries or Brushy Mountain Bee Farm will give you a nuc above the original colony. Be sure to destroy supercedure queen cells before and after you release the queens. A mated queen will not kill queen cells.
Here are some links to information about Russian bees:
http://members.aol.com/queenb95/russian.html
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:lWvirP7T6ngJ:www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/PDF%2520files/2.16.pdf+Russian+bees&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2
http://www.beebehavior.com/key_players.php
If you already have some colonies, I suggest making splits in the spring or summer. Buy the video “Hive Splitting or the book “Increase Essentials if you do not know how to make hive splits. Buy some pollen patties from Mann Lake and start feeding these pollen patties to your Russian bees in the last week in January. Order some pure Russian queens that were mated to pure Russian drones. When you introduce the Russian queens, do not allow the bees to eat the candy. Put tape over the candy end and release the queens after 3 or 4 days if there is no aggressive behavior towards the queen. I introduce my queens into small nucs to get better queen acceptance. If you do not have 5 frame nucs, a double screen from Rossman Apiaries or Brushy Mountain Bee Farm will give you a nuc above the original colony. Be sure to destroy supercedure queen cells before and after you release the queens. A mated queen will not kill queen cells.
Here are some links to information about Russian bees:
http://members.aol.com/queenb95/russian.html
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:lWvirP7T6ngJ:www.cals.ncsu.edu/entomology/apiculture/PDF%2520files/2.16.pdf+Russian+bees&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2
http://www.beebehavior.com/key_players.php