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I have been beekeeping at 1700 meters of altitude in the middle of the Rockies for many years. Minus 20-30C was the norm. Provided that the bees have good food, they'll survive. Cold doesn't kill bees but a dump hive will. I recommend sticking a thin wedge underneath the cover, just enough to...

Empirical experience shows that repeated sublimation of oxalic acid is ineffective. Very recent scientific literature reported that varroa MAY become resistant to oxalic acid through the acquisition of oxalotrophic bacteria. So, while oxalic acid is still effective overall, it may be wise not to...

Let us go back the the very reason of this thread, shall we?! SO, it is clear that nobody knows where to find a legal Russian VSH line in Europe. About Foghornleghorn's post ... does anyone know where to find the USDA VSH traits introgressed into ANY background? Maddmax1

You guys may wanna give a better look into honey bees global trafic and how ... questionable stocks are smuggled into US and EU through laundering mediated by "bridge" Countries. Maddmax1

I moved back to Italy three months ago. Before then I have been living in Montana for 15 years and in Florida for, may I say it, ... too long. Italian (ligustica) bees are very popular because they are still being evaluated as if varroa did not come along (but it did!). Under the hobbist...

What I meant to say is that they, too, were most likely looking at Varroa destructor. They just didn't know it, yet. Regardless, the USDA has come a long way with the Russian VSH traits. In Montana (1500 m) we crossed Italian x Russian (not an easy cross) and the results, while empirical, were...

It IS true. Importing new stocks has the potential/certainty to spread diseases. But let us look at the advantage of introgressing new genetic materials into local stocks If an alien queen, smuggled into a Country through another Country has a fit genome, it will spread genes into the...

Until 2001 beekeepers and researchers alike all over the world were mistakenly thinking jacobsonii but the plague that was wreathing the hives was already destructor. A seminal publication Anderson, D.L. and Trueman, J.W. (2000)Varroa jacobsoni (Acari: Varroidae) is more than one species 24...

Does anyone know where to find in Europe a line of Russian honey bees with the USDA VSH traits? Thank you. Maddmax

If a strain of bees was so smartly selected ,and therefore so well adapted, how come that it gets displaced by other newer strains? Biology 101: The fittest survive the others succumb.