At our last club meeting, Will and I put on a program about queen raising.
After the meeting, one of the members buttonholed us and explained how he was exterminating his Russian queens to replace them with his Minnesota Hybrids.
The reason! They were the meanest bees he had ever worked with.
By coincidence, we had both picked up Russian Queens from the same breeder at almost the exact same time.
I have been keeping Russian bees since 2000 and have never had a bad experience with them.
I didnt have time to question him before we left the meeting, but on the way home it occurred to me that he might be using gloves that had been stung.
The worst stinging I have ever had in 45 years of beekeeping was the result of tainted gloves.
A group of folks ran a beekeeping co-operative. My wife and I agreed to help them extract the honey. After extracting the honey, they asked me if I wanted to help put the supers back on the hives. I told them, Sure, if you dont wear your gloves. They agreed to this, so we went to the bee yard. Since I didnt have to put on protective gear, I grabbed some supers and went to the first trailer. I had already put the first super on and was getting ready to do the second, when the bees hum changed pitch. I looked behind me and saw one of the other beekeepers had just walked up behind me, WITH HIS GLOVES ON!
I dove off the trailer and found a bush to climb under, but not before the back of my tee shirt got nailed to my back. We counted around 100 stings!
Bottom line is that you can create your own nasty bees by allowing the sting smell to remain on your equipment.
After the meeting, one of the members buttonholed us and explained how he was exterminating his Russian queens to replace them with his Minnesota Hybrids.
The reason! They were the meanest bees he had ever worked with.
By coincidence, we had both picked up Russian Queens from the same breeder at almost the exact same time.
I have been keeping Russian bees since 2000 and have never had a bad experience with them.
I didnt have time to question him before we left the meeting, but on the way home it occurred to me that he might be using gloves that had been stung.
The worst stinging I have ever had in 45 years of beekeeping was the result of tainted gloves.
A group of folks ran a beekeeping co-operative. My wife and I agreed to help them extract the honey. After extracting the honey, they asked me if I wanted to help put the supers back on the hives. I told them, Sure, if you dont wear your gloves. They agreed to this, so we went to the bee yard. Since I didnt have to put on protective gear, I grabbed some supers and went to the first trailer. I had already put the first super on and was getting ready to do the second, when the bees hum changed pitch. I looked behind me and saw one of the other beekeepers had just walked up behind me, WITH HIS GLOVES ON!
I dove off the trailer and found a bush to climb under, but not before the back of my tee shirt got nailed to my back. We counted around 100 stings!
Bottom line is that you can create your own nasty bees by allowing the sting smell to remain on your equipment.