Joined
·
123 Posts
I've never tried Russians before and this is not exactly a scientific study but just installed 3 packages on Sunday- 2 italians and 1 russian, but from the same supplier. It was about 75 degrees that day but then Mon/ Tues we got a pretty good cold snap with temps at night dropping below freezing. They were all installed at the same time into the same type of equip, each went into a medium box with 4 frames each of drawn comb and the remaining foundation-less frames. I left the queen cages in for a slow release but drilled out the candy plug a bit to help the bees release her. Each got a quart jar of sugar syrup.
There weren't any noticeable differences at installation but during the last few days following the install:
-The Russians have consumed twice as much sugar syrup as their Italian counterparts.
-During the cold days the Russians were still flying at 40 degrees with several hanging out on the front porch, the Italians all huddled up inside.
-On day 3, I checked to insure the queens had been released, it was about 50 degrees. The Russians were flying about as if it were 80 degrees out. The Italians, some flying, but not nearly the volume outside the hive. When I opened the Russian hive...ROAR! Wow, very load hum. They were not aggressive toward me but definitely let me know they were there. When I opened up the italian hives- dead silence. The bees are fine but in both Italian hives, they were covering the frames, working hard, but as if I hadn't evened opened the hive.
All the queens had been released, I removed the cages and closed it back up trying not to disturb them too much. I'll go back in another week on a nice warm day to see if I can spot some eggs or the queens. Like I said, not scientific, not based on large numbers but definitely a difference observed between the varieties. I'm curious to see how it plays out the rest of the year. Let me know if you've had a similar experience and what I should expect from here on out. Thanks.
There weren't any noticeable differences at installation but during the last few days following the install:
-The Russians have consumed twice as much sugar syrup as their Italian counterparts.
-During the cold days the Russians were still flying at 40 degrees with several hanging out on the front porch, the Italians all huddled up inside.
-On day 3, I checked to insure the queens had been released, it was about 50 degrees. The Russians were flying about as if it were 80 degrees out. The Italians, some flying, but not nearly the volume outside the hive. When I opened the Russian hive...ROAR! Wow, very load hum. They were not aggressive toward me but definitely let me know they were there. When I opened up the italian hives- dead silence. The bees are fine but in both Italian hives, they were covering the frames, working hard, but as if I hadn't evened opened the hive.
All the queens had been released, I removed the cages and closed it back up trying not to disturb them too much. I'll go back in another week on a nice warm day to see if I can spot some eggs or the queens. Like I said, not scientific, not based on large numbers but definitely a difference observed between the varieties. I'm curious to see how it plays out the rest of the year. Let me know if you've had a similar experience and what I should expect from here on out. Thanks.