Well, the topic title still fits!
We’ve got the seven hives and a nuc now. Following up on the hive report above:
#1 My Italians have three honey supers on them now. One I added today. The other two were about 95% capped when I looked in. They are doing well.
#2 My strong Russians from a split from #1 and a purchased queen last year. I had taken frames from them to help #3 and I suspect they swarmed, though I missed it completely (comparatively few bees in June when I looked, couldn’t find a queen, no recent brood.). They have come back nicely and even have a honey super on them which is about 50% capped.
#3 These came back strong with the addition of brood from #2. They look good and are active. They have two honey supers on them which are about 70% capped.
4-7 all have two supers on them now and are on track to be ready to overwinter.
The Italians seem to be collecting the most honey, and they built up bees fast in the spring. These are huge advantages to commercial beekeepers, both for the honey and for strong hives early in the year when pollination services are needed. I’d like to offer pollination services to blueberry farmers near me. A Russian hive, just starting to build up brood would not offer the same quality service as an Italian hive that started laying eggs before the flowers were out.
Anecdotally I’d say the Russians are more protective of their hives. All the hives behave the same when I open them and have a smoker handy. I use a veil, long jacket, bloused pants and no gloves. I get a few stings but It’s usually my fault for rushing or pinching someone. But I have had several more stings this year when I am near the hives and doing something else. Twice I was mowing. I’ve never been stung mowing before. Once I was about 30’ away and the other time I was about 60’. Another time I was stung about 45’ away doing nothing but looking at an apricot tree. On that occasion a second bee head butted me for 100 yards until I entered a darkened barn.
I like having genetic diversity here. For the next several years I will probably be making my own queens. My hives are in two groups about 1/4 mike apart so they will probably breed from each other. But they will also find drones from other hives in the area. This will gradually move my hives towards a stronger Italian bias. But that’s fine. As I said above, I am seeing first hand some advantages to the Russians. I have not compared mite counts, however, which is supposed to be an edge for the Russians. I am becoming convinced I can combat mites in my future “mutt” hives by replacing queens with ones I breed in late June to create a break in the brood mites need to reproduce, and removing honey supers in mid to late August and treating for mites, before the winter brood eggs have all been laid. I’d like to maintain diversity by bringing in one queen a year that I buy. This would be a non-Italian.
Finally, honey supers should come off next month. That will give the two year old hives time to focus on winter and it gives the bees 100% of our last nectar flow (honeysuckle). It also lets me treat for mites. This year I am using ApiLife Var.