Looking for Sunkist Queens

[Blackwater Bees]

I need 6 mated sunkist queens in the next several weeks. I prefer the Cordovan. I'm leary of ordering them from Russel after reading customer reviews. Anybody got a few to spare?

[Beregondo]

I have had excellent experience with Jason Varner of Lewisville, PA.

It's my understanding that his business is a separate business entity from Russell Apiaries in MS.

I know Dr Russell has supplied breeders to a number of regional queen producers in an attempt to get his excellent lines of bees into hobbyist hands after recently being overwhelmed by trying to do it directly.

I had none of the issues some have reported when dealing with the Russell folks directly.
Service was excellent, Jason very responsive to email and phone communication, my Sunkist queens came very quickly and are filling frames with capped brood at a rate that is challenging me to keep them provided with enough room.

I don't know how many brood cycles of queens he has running at once, so you may have to wait one or two weeks for a batch of queens to be ready to ship, but I can tell you he delivered my bees exactly when he promised to, and has been very helpful.

Here is a link to his site:
http://tinyurl.com/c9qz69y

[NeilV]

I don't know that they are Sunkist (and assume they're not but don't really know), but Pendells Apiary in California has very good Cordovan Italian queens. I saw an ad in Bee Culture that they are providing summer and fall queens now, which has not been the case the last few years.

[Beetrucker74]

Yes sir they are Sunkist Queens. I have a selection of breeders from Robert and I am one of the Russell Apiary Subproducers. All queens are open mated to drones I select. With a number sent back for QA. We are working to increase winter survival by producing queens in different areas. My stock is not southern stock ALL my breeders stay here in Pa year round and as of now all my producion hives are here year round including my honey producers. I keep yards small since I do most of the work myself.One of my Sunkist honey yards made a 40# average sofar this year and they were this past springs nucs.

www.russellapiariespa.com
Jason Varner

[Jaseemtp]

Jason are any of y'all raising the cordovan strain of the sunkist?

[Beetrucker74]

I am but will not have any read for about 4 weeks. I have a batch of Moonbeams that will be ready next in 3 weeks. I don't have any thing else right now after todays shippments.

[Spark]

Try Velbert...he has some

http://www.vlwbeequeens.com/apps/webstore/

[bhfury]

Try Velbert...he has some

http://www.vlwbeequeens.com/apps/webstore/

And a great guy to deal with.

[Blackwater Bees]

Thanks for the replys guys. Lots of good info. I also received several PMs that helped a lot too. Thanks BB

[David Cassity]

Why would you want to requeen an old hive now? Are you starting a new hive now? This late in the year can they build up enough to survive the winter? I started feeding my one hive now realizing how much dearth this year has Benn. They have sucked about 5 lbs of sugar in a gal of water daily for a week. As a beginner sometimes I don't know what I don't know to ask.

[Blackwater Bees]

David, I split several larger hives and needed to replace the old queens (poor patterns). Also needed queens for the splits. Here on the coastal plain in SC they will have plenty of time to build up if I can keep the SHB down to an acceptable level.

[Vance G]

How long til you sub producers get the horn like the small customers have? If he will steal from me, he will steal from you.

[NW_Mark]

How long til you sub producers get the horn like the small customers have? If he will steal from me, he will steal from you.

Was that comment really necessary?

[Beregondo]

Probably not.
But I wouldn't be too concerned by the comment.

I think Vance is a better man than it would lead one to believe.

[Skinner Apiaries]

Ive got some more queens from him to graft off of. I MAY have sunkist grafts september. Will be crossed out with sunkist and polline drones.

[Vance G]

My statement was completely accurate and a very valid question. I won't buy from his sub producers either because, right when I am depending on them, they will be left short. It ain't happening again.

Probably not.
But I wouldn't be too concerned by the comment.

I think Vance is a better man than it would lead one to believe.

[Barry]

This isn't CR forum, so please keep discussion on topic for this forum.