Anyone have recent contact with Russell Apiaries? Placed an on-line order for queens with them on Jan 20. Payment went through but I have never received an order confirmation from them and all attempt to contact them have failed.
Rob Hughes promptly replied to my pm placed on the Russel site. He said that the nucs promised for this Spring should be ready the first week of April. He indicated that with the weather we are having and for the single nuc owed me I may be able to pick it up early. So far so good, I appreciated the update and look forward to getting my bees.
Maybe you could utilize your positive influence on those guys and ask them to make good the rest of the orders that are still not fulfilled - like mine.
I am not interested in defending anyone in this arguement but I see myself as having two options. The first option is to be civil and give them the opportunity to fill my order from last year. The second option is to be angry and quit trying to work with them. The first option works sometimes, the second option never seems to work, for me at least.
We are having a tremendous spring down here for bees and if our problems can be resolved the next couple of months is probably when it will happen.
I'm just getting up to speed on this topic. I have two Moonbeam queens on order with Russell Nebraska - so what the bottom line, am I going to get my queens or not?
I am having a hard time with this thread after reading the other thread titled something like "Robert Russell is a crook". Aren't these two threads about the same person/company? Seems like on the other thread it was determined that Robert Russell and Robert Hughes was the same person....Plus some legal issues as well..
Russell Apiaries is run/owned by Robert Lee Russell. (the alleged crook)
He has many sub-producers who operate under his name, but are not under his control. Basically Robert franchised out his father's reputation. The sub-producers probably got burned the most. So you can be dealing with Russell Apiaries NY and not actually be dealing with Russell Apiaries (Robert Lee Russell/Hughes)
The biggest issue the sub-producers have now is that they don't know what they are selling. Robert Russell likely fabricated the strains he claimed he developed, just like he fabricated the Hughes guy.
The sub-producer for Russell-Nebraska is Matthew. I have been swapping emails with him. Let me just say, he has likely been hurt by all this far greater than any of us and I have found him to be an upstanding individual - at least the best you can tell through email. Matthew is not the "crook" referred to in the Robert Russell thread and I hope the people reading this board will get behind Matthew, support him and help him get back on his feet.
I don't believe any of the sub producers are selling any of the lines of RA. Most have refunded all orders and have disassociated with him, including myself.
Their website sure has changed and the forums shut down. I personally was satisfied with the few queens I received a couple of years ago and really didn't have any problems, but my belief is, when there is this much smoke, there is bound to be fire somewhere. Hope everything works out for everybody. Good luck
Was he the guy that was wanting true feral bees for developing survivor strain genetics. Seems like he was the one claiming to have taken swarms off of mountains and brought swarms out of the wilderness by kayak. Wasn't he asking RA members to call him with anything they had that showed remarkable survivor traits for his project?
No he was the guy from Alabama who claimed to have sent his crew down to help with the bees when the "tornado" struck. He also advertised nucs on this site if i remember correctly. He also had a thread about not letting bees on comb into AL and wanting to change the law. there are so many strange people involved in this it's very difficult to sort them out.
Ted stopped posting long before this broke. I hope he is well. Ted is opinionated but quite legit in my mind. I know enough about him to be quite certain he wasn't involved in any way.
Ted Kretschmann
Member
Posts: 9
I will pass on the sub producer status. I particularly do not like dealing with hobbyist beekeepers-period. I prefer to produce and sell 100 nucs at a time to someone with check or money in hand than the drabble rabble headaches that I have had with hobbyist beekeepers in the past. It is a good idea that Dr., Russell has thought of but the sub producer must be ready to handle the aggrevation that hobbyist can cause. TK
I'm not sure what's going on with Ted Kretschmann. He is basically the only remaining commercial operator in Alabama, though the Normans I understand are back in business in north Crenshaw County. Ted was not at this year's Association meeting in Montgomery, at least I missed him if he was there. Looks like he hasn't posted since July 2012. He started beekeeping when he was 9 years old and worked up from a single hive to several thousand. He was president of the Alabama Beekeepers Association back in the early 90's(?). He certainly appears legit in what he has done and who he is. I'm not sure about his relationship with Russell though it seemed they did have some inside business "doings" at one time or another by some conversation in the forum. As for getting into something crooked with Russell....I don't think Ted would risk his reputation on a crackhead sissy scheme like RRussell put together. I just hope there is nothing wrong with his health or whatever that has stopped him from posting and going to the meetings.
...and you're right, Jim...I don't know Ted that well, but I know that he will speak his opinion on things.
I have a wager with Ted, so I emailed him to see how he was and received a reply: "You can relay this message to the good friends at beesource-that I am well and still kicking. You had best put a lobster with that steak....TED" There was more to it... he was bit by a brown recluse spider last July (2012) which required some surgery this past fall, so that slowed him down considerably. Also, he was victimized by the Russell situation as well.
Regards,
Steven
Well thanks for being brave enough to share that, on such a thread as this.
My own suspicion, is that RA would like to put things right, but has got in over his head. Along the way, he has made some bad choices about pretending to be someone else etc, perhaps his way of dealing with an issue that he just couldn't deal with. (Course I don't know that for sure, but personally feel it is possible).
I say this because I have been a full time queen breeder, and it can be a hard game. As the RA meltdown was beginning, RR was still chatting and put up various reasons / excuses, and many of them rang quite true, to me, ie, they were pretty plausible, from my perspective.
Not to detract from whatever financial pain others are feeling. But my gut is that RA never intended it to turn out this way.
Not wanting to make any enemies by having said that either. But in a thread such as this, a group mentality can take over. I'm in no way saying that wrong has not been done.
Did you folks who have received refunds contacted RA recently? I had an email exchange with "Victoria" a month of so ago, when she offered to transfer my order to the WA Affiliate, but I haven't heard back, and the affiliate has since taken down his RA site content.
It's only one queen, but a refund would buy another queen!
Don't know where I saw it but "The water in the bucket is what's in the well". Not as artfully put as I heard it but, you don't accidentally tell the pack of lies that were told. You fess up and be a man. Or woman. I wonder who he conned into floating the money to kite all these checks. I forgive him for my missing every out of town family activity I wanted to attend because I was waiting for illusionary moonbeam queens that just might show up. But I wouldn't consider doing business with him again.
JUST GOT IT~! Going to go see if it floats. It may be for a few more dollars than I remember. I have to check and correct if neccessary. Just hope his mothers home is not payrolling the deal.
I also received a check yesterday and deposited it last night. If there are no more surprises I am sure everyone will take a deep breath and allow RA to begin the rebuilding process, if they wish to remain in the bee selling business.
Has there been any resolution of the lost hives and bad queen issues? Taking money and not delivering a product is one thing, providing customer service and accepting responsibility for property left in your care is another.
Are the checks the first steps in rebuilding RA or the first steps in avoiding further legal trouble? I guess what happens next will give us a clue.
Bad news on the brown recluse, I'm glad to see he's still kicking, though. I can see Ted wanting lobster with his steak.
Ed
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