USDA production Russians... any opinions?

[BeeCurious]

I was thinking about picking up a couple of Charlie Harper's Russian production queens. Is there anyone in the Northeast who has experience with the USDA Russians?

[Alf57]

My experience with russians was not very good. As many have found out the russian queens are extremely hard to introduce. June of 2007 I ordered 6 queens from Long Creek and introduced them into 3 frame divides. Four were immediately superceded. One of the remaining two had a very high mite load and did not survive the winter. The last queen is almost two years old and overwintering in a really small cluster. Hopefully she will survive the rest of the winter.
If you are considering trying the russians, have your queens marked. That way you can tell if they have superceded her. Try not to inspect the colony for at least two weeks after introduction.
For the time being, I'm going to stick with my mutt carni's and italian's. If you try the russian's, keep us informed of your progress. Hope you have a great year.
Al

[Daddy's Girl]

The last queen is almost two years old and overwintering in a really small cluster. Hopefully she will survive the rest of the winter.

I was fretting about the cluster size of my Russians that I installed last year and the lady at Walter T Kelley said that the typical overwinter cluster size for Russians was between softball and volleyball. I am halfway between that.

Now that the bees are flying, and I can begin to feed them, I suspect that they will build up quickly. It's the hope, anyway.

[pcelar]

One of the remaining two had a very high mite load and did not survive the winter. The last queen is almost two years old and overwintering in a really small cluster. Hopefully she will survive the rest of the winter.

I doubt you had Russian bees.
I had nothing but the most pleasant experience with Russian bees. They are so resistant to mites and so gentle.