Russian Bee's

[dunhamfarm]

What are the pro's and con's of Russian bee's?  We live in the Western Mt. of Maine.
                                      Thanks

[amymcg]

Pros - small winter cluster, fly below 40 degrees, good honey producers for me, mine are more gentle, some mite tolerance.

cons - tend to build lots of queen cells just because. . . can be annoying if you're looking for signs of swarm activity.

I bought my hive from Don K. in Georgia, he buys his queens from the US Bee labs. His are also on small cell so even better for dealing with the mites and diseases.  www.geocities.com/fatbeeman

[Michael Bush]

Pros:

They survive high mite levels.

Cons:

They head butt and pull hair a lot.  They are runny and prone to propolize (but that might be a pro?).

The fact that they are frugal could be a pro, but this also means they overwinter on a small cluster and build up later, and if you want to pollinate almonds that's a con, if you want to make honey, it's neither, it just is.  They make up for the buildup by exploding later.  This also could be a pro or a con, as an explosive buildup can easily lead to swarming but it also means they have a population to haul in the flow if you avoid the swarming.

[amymcg]

Well, my experience has been a little different that MB's, but maybe because of different suppliers/genetics.

I haven't run in to the head butting problem with them, and mine have less propolis than my "italians", but I can tell you that they DO NOT LIKE THE LAWNMOWER. They come out of the hive and attack it.  The other hives could care less.