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Is my swarm Russian?

1316 Views 5 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  drlonzo
This is my first year at bee keeping and here is a little background. I bought my first hive in April and the bees are italian from Georgia. A month later I caught my first swarm. So today I go out and do a inspection of my hives. I wrk my swarm hive first and this hive is very active. I consider these girls angry. I get a lot of attention from them when I wrk them. Now they only been in a 10 frame hive for about 3 weeks and they have filled out 90% of the hive. I have a lot of brood being laid and theres a little of food storage on each frame. I don't feel they are keeping much back. They can go thru a gallon of sugar water in 5 days. I still haven't been able to locate their queen but i know shes their by how shes laying eggs. so I button them up and go to my other hive that has the bees i've bought. They are not as active, very laid back. I can spot their queen very easy. she is laying good they have a lot of storage. my concern with them is they haven't been filling out their frames as fast as the other hive or taking on sugar water as the other. These girls dont bother me as i inspect them like the other hive. Now this hive has been in operation since April. What do you think i got going on? The way my swarm hive acts seems to me a lot like how Russian bees are described.
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Before you can conclude that your swarm bees are Russian you'll have to figure out where they came from. That can be difficult! If one of your neighbors keeps Russians and lost a swarm at the same time you caught yours and oh by the way the queen is marked and the queen in the swarm you caught is marked - then you can probably conclude that the swarm you have is Russian. BUT - most of the time you'll never have that type of information and while it can make for fun speculation, you'll never know for sure what genetics you have acquired.

Enjoy your new bees! You can now add swarm catching to your list of bee accomplishments!
Do they like vodka?
Is it really necessary to feed this time of year? Plenty of nectar sources available now!
Only reason other than being told to feed them is to help them build comb and once that is done and they stop taking on the sugar water I will remove the feeder. I guess they are just angry mutts. I am the only person in my town raising bees so their not from anyone's hive. Their 100% wild. And they let me know. Just got home from retrieving a swarm in a fence row.
Only reason other than being told to feed them is to help them build comb and once that is done and they stop taking on the sugar water I will remove the feeder. I guess they are just angry mutts. I am the only person in my town raising bees so their not from anyone's hive. Their 100% wild. And they let me know. Just got home from retrieving a swarm in a fence row.
Sounds as if you may have gotten yourself a swarm that has some genetics from the "old black german" bees of yesteryear. They were some really grumpy bees.
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