Robert Russell Apiaries - Update

[NY_BLUES]

Baldwinbees

Short answer is no, we were not gracing the halls of the research foundation. To my knowledge, Russell never claimed to have bees in NY, so I dont think that we were set up to back up claims of bees in multiple states. i think Russell suckered us into jumping in and bailing him out of numerous orders that he never shipped.

[VolunteerK9]

Joel, could you be more explanitory please?

First time I cracked a grin reading this thread. Thankye

[Karl Parker]

I received an email this evening from Paypal showing a full refund for my order from Russell's Nebraska. This particular sub producer seems to be an honest guy.

[Vance G]

I emailed it to rwilson66@rankincounty.org Mr Wilson is the county prosecutor. If you do a search for Rankin County MS you can get the address and phone number also.

Vance, was there an email address, or did you write a letter? I've been trying to find where, what, who, to file...

[Vance G]

I know you never saw your bees but did you ever get your woodenware? You really got hung out to dry my friend! Russell had several alter egos that he posted under to keep the hook set. I am way too stupid to tell that many lies myself! I could never keep it straight.

Vance, my old friend from the " Dr. FrankenRussellstein Cult" you can count me in at your story. I do not know if you remember, but I call Russell's bluff and ask "Rob" if he was Russell altered ego at their own forum.
Anyways, I did file a complain too, and hope to see Robert Bernard Madoff Russell with stripes on suit soon.

Aurelio Paez DBA Michas Honey House

[sonnypemberton]

Recent information has come to our attention regarding Russell Apiaries and the State Producer Program. In a nutshell it appears that the Russell Apiaries State Producer Progam will come to an abrupt end.


We do have the genetics and resources to provide the Sunkist Non-Cordovan Queens and nucs that we have sold. We will be delivering those products as advertised. So you can continue to make your plans for this season.

We now have hidden most of the pages on this website.

Fortunately, we used discretion in only offering to sell genetics we had in hand and could furnish to those wanting to buy from us. We will be furnishing the April/May Nucs to the customers who have ordered them. We will be furnishing the Sunkist Non-Cordovan queens to the customers who have ordered them. We want to re-assure those of you who have followed the Beesource threads about Robert Russell that the state producers that we have interacted with are honorable people who have been deceived (some at substantial financial and operational losses) (including yours truely).

Russell Apiaries Alabama, LLC is a company independent of Robert Russell and affiliated with him through a "franchise agreement" in which we were to have access to various things, including their genetic lines of bees. Robert Russell is not an owner of Russell Apiaries Alabama, LLC or in any way affiliated with its operation.

If you have questions that we can answer, please send them to russellapiariesal@gmail.com. We will try to answer them as best we can.


ALL NUCS AND QUEENS WE HAVE SOLD WILL BE PROVIDED AS ADVERTISED.

[sqkcrk]

Why would you keep the name?

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Why would you keep the name?

I'd take it a step further, Mark, and urge ALL the subs to get rid of any connotation that will remind people of Russell, from the websites that look like his, to the names that sound like his, to any phrasing that reminds people of him. These can only hurt your business and make you sound as shady as he is. With so many people having been hurt by all of this, the sooner that name is buried in the dust, the sooner people will move on. You do not need that dirt on your coattails!

JMO

Rusty

[cg3]

At least for a while, the subs are going to need to be reachable to take care of business.

[Intheswamp]

I'll echo Mark's remark...why would you keep that name? I suppose it could be that you've got money invested in the name itself, being a LLC and it's expenses. Thanks for sharing the notice from your webpage. Did you ever meet with Russell yourself? <delete>


Ed

ETA: The "<delete>" above was a statement I made that Russell-Alabama had not responded to an inquiry I made with them some time ago. I apparently had used a spam-collection email account when I made the inquiry and Russel-Alabama did respond in a timely manner but I missed it, which was my fault. My apologies to Greg/Sonny for being wrong about this.

[alblancher]

I'm really in a strange situation.

Rob Hughes promised to fill my nuc order. The pm portion of the RA site is down so I am not able to communicate directly with him any longer. Since I live within driving distance of Jackson I guess the order was placed directly with Robert Russel/Rob Hughes so the sub producers have no responsibility to me.

I have been careful not to be to critical of this situation because I see my only option as giving him the opportunity to complete last year's orders and all the other outstanding orders. Yea, I know, I'm a moron but I will live up to my side of the agreement and expect delivery of my bees beginning of April.

The only way I can see Robert Russel begin to get out of this mess is to live up to his obliqations by providing either healthy bees or refunding the money to people that no longer want bees.

He may never recover from this fiasco, probably doesn't have the desire to recover, probably doesn't deserve the opportunity, but he does Have the opportunity to TRY.

Robert Russel if you read this forum

Begin clearing up the mess you made by providing health bees to those of us that still want them or refund the money of those that do not.

I'm going to find a nice quiet place where I can stick my head back in the sand

Al

[Brandy]

Sorry Sonnypemberton, but you probably need to really identify yourself as some of the other subs, what you're real operation is. Who you are, where you are. Also email to RussellApiariesal@gmail.. for questions vs. a phone number, address... Unfortunately you also don't mention anything about a refund, only about being able to fulfill previous orders. I would think you'd want your customers to have a choice whether they're supporting RA, you, or themselves..

Some of us have been taken to school on what we now look for in a provider. And Rusty Hills is right, anything that mentions RA or Sunkist in my mind is going into the trash.

And Alblancher, I believe that RA/RH " promised" to fill a number of queen and nuc orders?? He also "promised" to refund a number of orders.. Now, if he had done that, do you think we would all be here today?? But good luck, indeed your not in a strange situation, your in the same situation most of us are in... and when April, May, June comes let us know how it's going.

[alblancher]

Brandy,

It appears the scab has been pulled off the wound and there is no more hiding. To me the question is Russel's next step. I am trying to determine if having a private message dated as recently as Feb 4 where I agree to a future pick up date of first week of April limits my options. I guess I can forward the pm's to the investigator's office for their records but as far as my account is concerned he has not yet broken the agreement and regardless of what I think or feel that fact remains.

That was the point of the previous message. With everything that has happend he can still settle his outstanding obligations and begin to clean this up.

There are so many ways that nobody gets anything. Satisfy your obligations to me and any other valid obligations to others and the matter is closed as far as I am concerned. I think anyone that would rather have a prosecution instead of a solution is making an expensive mistake. The possibility of prosecution may make a solution palatable to Robert Russel.

Like I said before the scab if off the wound. Everyone knows what is going on, we are beginning to get the facts and the only thing we don't know is what will happen next.

[Brandy]

Good luck alblancher, I really hope you get your nucs. If RA had your attitude there wouldn't be any problems.

[alblancher]

HeHe


I'll probably get like everyone else but at least I'm smiling as it happens

[Vance G]

Never thought I would use this line. AL! DENIAL is not just a river in Africa! I remember waiting for unshipped queens, not wanting to upset the great and powerful Oz so maybe I would get my bees! It just ain't gonna work out Al. Sorry

[RZRBCK BEE]

So in everyone's mind, is PDG Honey guilty of anything? Was he in on this?

[alblancher]

As of 2/26/13 RA has not defaulted on my order. Last summer after missing the original delivery date I agreed to have him overwinter my nuc. The most recent pms indicate his intention to live up to the beginning of April delivery date.

He did miss the original delivery dates but at no time did I demand my money back or ask him to satisfy the original agreement by demanding immediate delivery. If he delivers the bees or refunds my money by 4/15/13 he has lived up to our agreement. That's just the way I see my situation from a legal standpoint. Been in business 30 years and see this kind of stuff occassionally.

By using Rob Hughes as my contact and representing Rob Hughes as an agent for RA he may have shown that from the beginning he intended to commit fraud. There is a difference between telling a pesky salesperson to ask for a fictional Jack White, who never seems to be available whenever he visits and having the same fictional Jack White sign a contract with no intent to fullfill the agreement.

Not only did I more than likely get sold down the river, I tied my hands before getting in the boat.

[Barry]

If he delivers the bees or refunds my money by 4/15/13 he has lived up to our agreement.

With all that has come out now, do you have any concern about the bees, should you actually get them? Are they the bees as advertised? Are you sure they will be bees he breed and raised from the start? Do you think they could be someone else's stock?

[Major]

I'm not trying to get off topic, but I just read Barry's last post and I had to add this. I'm pretty sure I've said this here or another Russell thread but I ordered 5 nucs last year and was one of the few that actually got them and yeah I met the elusive Robert Russell incognito. When I got the bees back to Tennessee and inspected them well here's what I noticed, frames of all different kinds( plastic, wood some old some newer) and an enormous amount of small hive beetles and mites. I have shb here but I deal with them or I should say the bees deal with them, but there's a point when they overtake bees and those nucs where very close to that point from the start. I personally believe that I brought more trouble to my apiary than I would imagined. All 5 nucs are dead and I had them in an isolated yard with 4 more strong colonies. All the hives I had at this yard are dead maybe they would have died anyway I don't know for sure but after inspecting the dead outs here's what I found tons of dead shb dead mites all over the slatted racks and frames and leftover food. So I don't think they starved. My point being in all this rambling I'm with Barry here I'm not sure you actually want those bees, and if you do get them I would get a local inspector or your state apiary inspector to look them over. Just my 2 cents and they are free here.
Major