Russell Apiaries

[camero7]

Through this I have re-learned the lesson that, you aint got it, till you got it in your hands.

That's the story of farming. I've been a farmer for 40 years and it never changes.

[MTINAZ]

Until last summer, we did not sell to the public... Only retail and large commercial operations... So we are still adjusting to going from 80,000 queens amongst 150-200 customers, to 80,000 queens amongst 3,700+ customers. I feel that we have done fairly well in this transition, however, telephone communications are still very limited. We did not expect to have anywhere near the call volume that we are having... Email and PM remains the best way to reach us.

I think this is the issue, as no one is debating if he is a good guy or a good company. I personally have sent 3-4 emails about an order that was paid for in Jan. and never did receive a response. Over all I am just expecting the queens to be worth any lack of communication this change in business practice has caused.

[Ted Kretschmann]

Papar, you must not know a whole lot about queen breeding or the breeding industry. When the weather turns freakishly cold and queen nucs get frozen out and die........When the weather is cold and wet, queens do not mate.........Thus suddenly there is a glut of cells that can not be used that would have replaced the mated queens that were to be caught from the nucs..Rain,you cannot shake packages to make up replacement nucs or grafting nucs......Breeder's operations revolve just like any other farm--around the weather. Mr. Russell went above and beyond as a professional to get you your queen bees. TK Alabama bee company-former package producer.

[WI-beek]

I ordered some queen ( NOT from Russel) last year for early June and did not get them till end of July. If I get my queens within a week or two of the PLANNED SHIP DATE Im impressed. Queen rearing is farming and there are many variables that affect the outcome. I ordered some queen this year from R. Russel after seeing many posts from him here. He has alway got back to me with answers to my questions. What worries me most is that he may decide playing with hobby or sideliners is not worth all the time he has to commit to petty b.s. He has to be one of the busiest people on earth.

I noticed someone posted they had brood waiting for queens to arrive. I would never make up a nuc until I am certain my queens have shipped and will arrive the next day.

Those who are getting there queens close to on time this year are lucky. I have nothing but push back, push back on queens, packages, and nucs.

[kbfarms]

Received queens this week from them. OUTSTANDING queens!! Nice, big healthy looking, ACTIVE queens. All the attendents alive and active. Really pleased with how they looked. Picked up English Buckfast and Carni. Can not wait to get the Sunkist. Highly recommend