Russian Apis Mellifera Semper Paratus

One of the decisions a new beekeeper must make is what strain of bees. Italian, Carniolan, and Russian are most common, each having specific benefits. For instance, Italians are known for their honey production, Carniolans are the most gentle. I selected Russian bees for their smaller winter cluster, overall resistance to disease and pests, and that bee production will increase and decrease relative to the amount of pollen available.

New beekeepers will often loose a colony to starvation in late winter when the queen has begun to increase her brood production while food stores are low in the hive. Because a Russian queen will not significantly increase her brood production until pollen is flowing, late winter losses are minimal. Plus the smaller winter cluster means less food stores are needed and what is stored will last longer with fewer bees relying on it to get through the winter.

Queen Cup in OV Hive

Another trait of a Russian colony that can be disconcerting for a new beekeeper is that the colony maintains active queen cells during the brood-rearing season. A queen cell in other colonies can be interpreted as an attempt to swarm (reduce overcrowding by establishing a new colony) or to supersede (kill and replace) the current queen. This is not the case with Russian colonies as the workers often destroy the extra queen cells before they fully develop.

While pulling frames last week to harvest honey, I spotted a swarm cell that had a small amount of white royal jelly in the bottom. Even though I could not detect the larvae, I assumed that the cell would be capped by now with a queen growing inside. I intended to move that frame, along with others containing brood in various stages and lots of bees in general (to account for some drifting back to the original hive) to create another hive in the apiary. But instead of a peanut-looking queen cell, today I found just a bunch of empty queen cups throughout the hive. 

In typical Russian fashion, the bees keep themselves ready just in case they need to make a new queen and have destroyed those that they do not need. I've learned by now to just enjoy the queen cups and not be alarmed by their presence, knowing that they're just Russian bees, doing what Russians do.