# Russell Sunkist Queens



## valleyman

If they make it thru winter to spring, mine are going to be. If you are going to raise queens for yourself, why not. A breeder queen is an II queen or one that has been open mated and tested to see if they are only mated to SKC drones. That is what I will do by watching to make sure that the only thing in their hives are SKC's. I will also pick the best brood layer, quanity and pattern. Good luck!!


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## DirtyDusty

valleyman said:


> If they make it thru winter to spring, mine are going to be. If you are going to raise queens for yourself, why not. A breeder queen is an II queen or one that has been open mated and tested to see if they are only mated to SKC drones. That is what I will do by watching to make sure that the only thing in their hives are SKC's. I will also pick the best brood layer, quanity and pattern. Good luck!!


How will you know if they are all sunkist in the hive? The Sunkist queens produce several different color bees.


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## valleyman

DirtyDusty said:


> How will you know if they are all sunkist in the hive? The Sunkist queens produce several different color bees.


Sorry, or glad to tell you the above statement should not be true. If they are mated as Russell Apiaries try to get them mated then the progeny are ALL going to be Cordovan, the exact same color. It doesn't mean that there might not be mating with a drone that is not Cordovan. That is the reason they can't be sold as breeders. I have 9 that I am introducing to Russian genetics so if all 9 survive then all I have to do is watch the hives to see if all progeny in it are Cordovan. If so I have an acceptable breeder Queen. If I have 2 hives that are homozygous Cordovan then 1 will be used to produce drones to set out drone nucs away from my Apiary, in the hopes of getting any raised queens mated with homozygous drones. Hope this helps as RRussell would say. Good luck!


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## Joseph Clemens

I think what DirtyDusty means is that all Russell Apiaries SunKist are not Cordovan, they also have non-Cordovan SunKist queens.

Right now, I too am in the process of raising daughter queens that are homozygous for the Cordovan trait from four original Russell Apiaries SunKist Cordovan queens. Then I am selecting some of the most fecund individual daughters to head my full-size production hives and encouraging them to raise plenty of drones. I believe it is a good idea to have lots and lots of genetic diversity of drones, but with the right kind of diversity (as wide a diversity of sex alleles, as practical - but in my case, all Cordovan, if possible).

It would be even better if I can get them to swarm and spread the SunKist Cordovan genetics out into my local feral population. Then I'd be even more likely not to get my daughter queens bred with undesirable drones, though I'm sure there are many local drones that also provide desirable genetics, as very few Cordovan daughter queens that I produce actually go on to establish hives with a preponderance of undesirable traits.


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## valleyman

Yeah I just had Cordovan in my mind. Could be he didn't understand that they have more than the Cordovan line of Sunkist. I think that the Sunkist (not cordovan) are their Italian resistant line. They are a very productive line as well.

Yes to diversity! I was thinking as I thyped the post that I would need to make sure that the drones didn't come from 2 sister Queens. I will contact Robert later, but I bet he sent me a diverse bunch of Queens. He said that he was going to cage mine himself. He knows my intent so he certainly knows how it all works. Good luck!


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## DirtyDusty

"SunKist are the line that my father (JN Russell) has spent his entire life perfecting. They are of Italian origin, and have been selectively bred since 1951 for heavy laying, low swarming,*honey production, distance of foraging, mite and disease resistance, gentleness, comb building, and early build up. They were created for his use as cell builders and for package production. They have been exclusively available to the commercial and university market up until last august, when I began releasing them to sideliners and hobbyists to help replenish their losses to shb. They produce a much higher than average number of bees per hive.... with swarm levels around 100-120k. The SunKist Cordovan was*created in 1996 as a way to more easily locate the queen in a hive with so many bees. The SunKist line produces bees of 3 bands, 5 bands, black, grey, and amber.... The SunKist Cordovans produce bees of 3 bands, 5 bands, and amber coloration."

This was copied from Russells website, I thought, after reading the last sentence, that the cordovan sunkist threw 3 diffrent colors of bees. I requeened a hive a month or so back with one of the Sunkist Cordovans from his private stock. Most of the bees are the amber color, but there are still many banded bees in there too. I am not sure if they are just some left overs from the last queen or what.


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## rrussell6870

The SK cordovan production queens are indeed open mated and do produce mostly amber colored progeny, with a few mixed colors here and there... the average ratio should be somewhere around 95% Cordovan / 5% banded... this mix in color is easily note when grafting from the colony of a production queen, as some of the daughters will not be of cordovan color... the Sunkist Cordovan breeders do however produce a fully Cordovan colony... so grafting from the breeder queen will give you 100% cordovan daughters... 

That said, there is an easy way to determine the color or the daughters that you create from a production queen... I call them hatchery frames and they are very easy to make using a regular frame and California mini cages (you need to use jzbz wide based cell cups for this), or you can purchase a queen bank frame like the ones that Tim makes at Honey Run Apiaries (I have tried his queen banks for hatching virgins for ii, and they work very well. Two thumbs up Tim ..) simply raise your cells as you prefer, then instead of planting them into nucs before they hatch, place them in the hatchery frame and put the frame into a queenless colony (starters work well)... this way, your queens can emerge and be fed and cared for as they dry... then you can judge them for color and size, then plant the choice ones into mating nucs...(tip... when using the home made hatchery/queen bank frame with California mini cages, you can simply pluck the cages that you want off of the bank and place them into your mating nucs... for using the banks that Tim produces, I recommend using the California mini cages to place over the opening in the bank to allow the queen to walk from the bank up into the cage, then plug the cage with the cell cup and plant the cage.)

Valleyman, you are exactly right about the diversity of your queens... none are related... that is true for all of our shipments of 40 or less queens... each one is non-related (from a different queen mother).

Hope this helps!


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## valleyman

Thanks Robert for another insightful post!!!! My queens are looking good so far!

In my experience with breeding seedstock cattle, I found that even those that were homozygous for a color or other traits, that there could be a variation of that trait. It would be close to the predicted, but still a variation. For instance, a black cow that is homozygous black could still produce a reddish brown progeny, and a homozygous polled could still produce progeny with small scurs. Probably more than 95%/5%.


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## RiodeLobo

Today it was sunny 41 F and slightly windy. Of my 5 hives my Sunkist and Sunkist Cordovan hives were the only two out flying. Both are looking good for the winter so far, however with the poor season we had all needed some extra food.


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## Myron Denny

I am very much interested to find out how the "Russell Sunkists" survived in the heat and drought we had last year in the southern great plains. None of the responses sofar have been from the extreme drought & record heat areas. 

While we are at it did anyone have queens that did survive and produce in the drought and heat?


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## broodhead

My experiences with the Russell Sunkist was not good at all, simply put it was a complete failure. Although I tried only a few of the queens I must say that the reason for the failure may be not all the bees fault. I will lay 50% of the blame on Russell. After ordering and paying for the queens in December I was informed of April shipment, that date came and went, although weather was said to have been the reason for the delay. When the bees did arrive they were obviously not as fresh as expected and two of the five were dead. I informed Russell and these were replaced immediately. 
Now here I was into June with new Queens in Florida, as you Florida beeks know Florida can be tough on bees in the summer. We were extremely hot in the summer, and dry. There again, no fault of the supplier, but mother nature was not giving me a lot of assistance. My queens were under achievers, poor starters, poor brood producers and overall not suited well to my conditions. I make about 100 plus splits during the late spring and summer, my success rate is extremely good, but these were well below my standard rate of success. In closing I can honestly say that I would not purchase these queens again for my conditions, I will stick to my trusty homebrew queens from some stock that I bought from Glenn Apiaries.


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## Vance G

I had some sunkists and they did fine. Russells had tornados taking out SK mating yards, floods, illness and death in the family. Many queens and mine got delivered later than initially projected. Personally I think they did well on their bee farm. Ya just can't harvest be it a queen or wheat til it is ripe. I am thankful that they took the time to make sure I got the quality product I pay a premium price for. Farmers are all at the mercy of the land, we learn to live with it. Mine DID NOT have to live with a hot dry climate but they do offer northern and southern select of many of their strains. Enquire about that possibility before ordering. I think you would be happy with sunkists jusdging from my experieince.


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## BeeGhost

I am going to order a couple sunkist queens to try out this year, they look very interesting and I love trying new things!!


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## Specialkayme

I'd suggest taking it one step further. If possible, discuss your region with the staff at Russell's, if not with Dr. Russell himself (although he is a very difficult man to get a hold of). Most of the time they will be able to identify your region and suggest a strain, or a subset of a strain. They have Sunkists that are Northern bred, some that are southern bred.

I bought five hives off a guy that was getting out of beekeeping a few years back. Drove a ways to get them, and found their tendencies to be somewhat odd. I explained them to Russell, and he was able to identify where I bought the hives from. Not only the state, but the region of the state. When I was shocked and asked him to explain how he knew, he said his company was involved in populating the bees in the area. The tendencies were particularly bred to survive the area that I went to. Particularly bred by Russells. So my hives likely mated with drones from queens that came from his yards. Or second or third generations of them.


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## Joseph Clemens

Over here, this past season it was hotter and drier than usual. After the mesquite flow (which itself was weaker and shorter than usual), there were only a few sporadic creosote bushes providing a little nectar and pollen, so, I've basically been feeding since June 2011, both pollen sub and sugar syrup. We have had some Autumn rains, hopefully they will be enough to bring wildflowers into bloom by sometime in February.

I too received two Russell Apiaries SunKist Cordovan queens in June, the USPS had a bit of difficulty figuring out how to safely deliver them, so by the time I first saw them, they were deceased. Russell kindly sent replacements -- this time they all arrived safely. After I received them I quickly began raising daughter queens, then requeening all my full-size hives with these daughters, so a large population of desirable drones would soon be available to improve the status of my open mated queens. Nearly every colony, full-size and nucs are still going strong (now, nearly all switched over to SKC genetics) - a few have succumbed to starvation, due to selective robbing, no doubt perpetrated by the many stronger colonies. We had a few weeks of frosty nights near or at freezing, with daytime temps in the 40-60'sF, which slowed wildflower development and stressed all my colonies, which mostly only have enough stores to take them through a few days at a time. My sugar bill has never been higher.

In these circumstances (which we've also seen in years past, but rarely), I've been able to expand from three or four nucs, to nearly fifty and from eight full-size colonies to almost twenty. These SKC daughter queens grow strong colonies, have continued to produce and maintain strong drone populations and allow me to continue raising queens, even now. I have recently just about completed my effort to replace the first round of daughter queens, in the full-size colonies, with a second round of daughters from the same mother queens (the first round had mated with many non-Cordovan drones), hoping that, as has been seen with most of the recently grown queens, they will mate with many more Cordovan drones, which are now in the area. Colonies with populations exhibiting a preponderance of Cordovan heterozygosity, appear to display a stronger, more uniform degree of the most desirable traits and fewer undesirable traits.


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## JRing

I love my Sunkist (non-cordovan colored) nuc that is now two 8 frame deep and a super on them plus I was able to pull frames and make splits from another Russell Queen (italian-carni).


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## hystad

I bought 20 SKC last August. Half died in the heat during transit. Replacements were shipped within a week and they are doing very well. It gets hot and very dry were I live and have had no problems. BeeGhost I should have a few queen cells in March that you can have if you want them. Livermore is about 30-40 minutes away from where I live.


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## kenr

I've got one SKC queen and so far the hive has been doing awsome It was around 45*F the other day and they were flying around.So far I've got one problem we had a great fall flower bloom this year and all my hives filled up execpt my SKC she just kept laying.Wouldn't surprise me if there's not brood in the nest right now I've feed over 30Lbs of sugar and they are still lite.I've got five more comming this April and cain't wait.


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## BeeGhost

hystad said:


> BeeGhost I should have a few queen cells in March that you can have if you want them. Livermore is about 30-40 minutes away from where I live.


That would be awesome Hystad!! Actually, i'll be moving to Tracy in February, so even closer!! If you wouldnt mind I'd like to come and check out your sunkist colonies sometime and pick your brain on them!! Take care bud!!


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## Broke-T

The sunkist were bred by his father to brood up early and heavy for package production. This bee will eat itself out of house and home if given the chance. You really have to watch your food stores going into winter and during summer dearths.

Johnny


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## Specialkayme

I've noticed an issue in the summer with the Sunkist queens. Mine went robber crazy at the drop of a hat in our summer dearth. I'm sure I didn't help the situation at all, but after losing a number of hives and a number of nucs to robbing, I've learned my lesson and will have to watch the activity much closer this year.

According to Russell, the Sunkist is supposed to shut down when food stores arn't available, and will not continue to eat you out of house and home like the italians do. However, they do maintain massive hive populations. So while they will need to eat more than the average hive (solely based on numbers), they are supposed to eat less per bee (if such a thing exists) than the average hive. I don't have any personal experience with observing this, just going off what I've been told.


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## preciousbees

I bought 3 sunkist not cor color at the end of May,'11. I had 1 die, 1 supersedure, and 1 doing very well, the daughters of the supersedure hive are divided into a couple of other hives,and they are doing extremely well. I am planning to order 4 more, along with 3 VSH, and 3 Minn hyg. to raise more Queen here in Iowa. I have been very happy with the information that Dr Russell is so willing to give us newer beekeepers.


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## ga.beeman

I got one Sunkist cord. from them last summer and she was dead when she arrived no fought of the Russells. They replaced her right away and they where really doing good when winter got here. They built up really nice and do work at a cooler temp. The russells are a class act and i will be buying more from them. You can get a bad queen from anybody. dont judge them on one quuen


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## TwinkieBee

Broke-T said:


> The sunkist were bred by his father to brood up early and heavy for package production. This bee will eat itself out of house and home if given the chance. You really have to watch your food stores going into winter and during summer dearths.
> 
> Johnny


That's not true. JN never fed his bees. We never fed ours either. My dads and JN's hives were always heavy in spring and had few if any deadouts. Robert explained it to me that they have a longer flight distance and that's why they always have stores when other bees do not.


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## rrussell6870

Jackie is correct, the sunkist are not over consumers... in fact they are quite the oposite... most people report that they maintain more stores than their others bees do... This is primarily due to the larger foraging range allowing them to reach food sources that are not within the range of the competition... Just leave them the same amount of stores that you would for any other bee, 50/50 brood/food, and they will be just fine... they brood up according to what they have available (forage or stores), so the more they have, the more bees they will produce...


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## RiodeLobo

Broke-T said:


> This bee will eat itself out of house and home if given the chance. You really have to watch your food stores going into winter and during summer dearths.


My heaviest hive as of now is still the Sunkist, my second is Caucasian followed by the Italian/Russian. All Russell's. All the hive have received about the same amount of feed. (all were started as nucs in the late spring, and are doing better than my initial hive that came through last winter. I did put candy on all my hives this winter, but that is more my paranoia than anything else. 

PS I cannot wait for my Moonbeams this spring.


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## rrussell6870

Thanks for pointing that out Dan... And thats in Oregon. lol. Its a little cool today, but I will try to get into some hives to get you guys some pics tomorrow... maybe that will make the wait a bit easier... OR it may make it worse. lol. Lets take a vote, who wants to see some pics of the inner workings of SunKist and MoonBeam hives on Jan. 19th?


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## Joseph Clemens

Sounds good to me. Other than getting into hives, myself, my next favorite thing is to see pics of the inner workings of others hives.


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## rrussell6870

Same here Joe... So how are your SKC's doing? Your building cells with them right now arent you? They havent eaten themselves out of house and home in the desert? lol.


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## rrussell6870

Oops, nevermind Joe, I just saw your post on the previous page. Sounds like they are doing well there. Thanks for the input!

Kenr, what configuration are you running your SKCs in? They may just need a bit more space, as they do keep a pretty big nest... also, if they have capped brood while taking in syrup, they will not remove the brood to store the syrup, so a super will give them a place to store it... this is one of those things where some people reduce to singles for winter, while others keep a super on... I prefer to leave the extra space so I have more brood in spring... There are a few threads here somewhere that have MP and I discussing the benefits of leaving the space for operations that have the option... hope this helps!

So anyone else want to see what SunKist and MoonBeam hives look like on Jan. 19th?


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## Vance G

Pictures are good, please do.


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## VeggieGardener

{raises hand} Yes, pictures of Sunkist and Moonbeam hives please!


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## grozzie2

rrussell6870 said:


> So anyone else want to see what SunKist and MoonBeam hives look like on Jan. 19th?


I am interested. The detail on the moonbeams that intrigues me the most, is the reference to foraging in cooler temps. We've been watching our hives pretty closely this winter, they were packages this spring, and, I really have no clue what the parent lineage was. What we have seen so far, they do 'excrement flights' on days where temp reaches 9C, and sun is on the hive. They dont fly on days when it only gets up to 8C.

In the spring, when the maples start going here, temps in the range 6 to 8 C, pretty common. Days where temps get up to 10C, not nearly so common. Talking with local long time keepers, getting anything in the hives from the maples, is a 'once every few years' event, and not something that happens in the norm. Every time I read about the moonbeams, I start wondering how they would do on the maples around here in the spring. I have no clue what paperwork / beurocracy hoops have to be jumped thru to get a few of them across the border, but, it's on my list of things to research over the next while. Bees that will work the maples in temps 2 or 3 deg C cooler than the norm, are a very intriguing concept.


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## valleyman

Pictures please. it is too wet and cold here to take a peek.


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## rrussell6870

Well, it looks like I'm going to take some pics then. lol. I will post a link to them here as soon as I get them. 

Grozzie, the border is closed to everyone except a few California operations that are willing to pay the price... I just cant justify it until they cut us some slack... I get a ton of people asking for us to export north like we used to, and I'm really sorry that we cant... BUT, I will try to get some pics or videos of them working in cold temps for you!


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## RiodeLobo

grozzie2 said:


> What we have seen so far, they do 'excrement flights' on days where temp reaches 9C, and sun is on the hive. They dont fly on days when it only gets up to 8C.


I don't have the moonbeams yet, but my the SK will take cleansing flights in mid 40's. The lowest I know I have seen was 46 F (sunny light wind), but I have seen them out on sunny days that seemed cooler (I did not check the temp)


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## mmiller

I would love to see some pics. Those moonbeams have me all kinds of exited.

Mike


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## thomas

Pics are the best i would love to see some myself everyone has one of his bees but my love for his caucasians are by far my favorite these girls rock.I may have only one of them i am waiting to see if i can get some of those virgins and cross them with my stock of carni's to see how much better they will do for my stock. Mr. Russell i want some of those virgins as fast as you can let me know i can get them they are awesome and you do not hear me brag on to many people bees.

Thomas Yancey


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## 2Tall

I tried 2 of the sunkist cordv this spring 1 died before release the other took off very well .I did also see some robbing in our summer dry spell, so far the one is still doing well in Indiana.I also find them to fly at lower temps here also, I hope the hive makes it to spring so I can see how they build up.I really like the color of these and very gentle.


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## ga.beeman

I would like to see some pics of the SKC,SK and MB thanks


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## Specialkayme

I could use some pics as well. 

Although, admittedly, they will just make me that much more anxious to pick up my nucs . . .


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## David LaFerney

SKC - 









One of her daughters -


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## David LaFerney

Another daughter that is not cordovan, but a laying machine...


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## RSWOODBEE

Ya know her legs look cordovan.


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## rrussell6870

Still only 32 outside, but temps are suppose to reach 65 today... here are a few pics that you guys may find interesting though... all taken this morning January 19th...

A little frost... temp was 29f
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0820.jpg

http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0822.jpg

Ball Clover still in bloom... been blooming year-round... 
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0825.jpg

http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0824.jpg

Crimson Clover still in bloom... been blooming year-round as well...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0823.jpg

Sadly, we didn't have any wild radish around here this year, down in hattiesburg there was plenty, also in CA and OR...

I will be taking a digital scale with me to take the pics of the bees when it warms up... I will weigh each box individually for you guys...


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## valleyman

David, 
Why did you say that the one was not cordovan, was it because her thorax is too dark? Otherwise she looks cordovan.


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## RiodeLobo

rrussell6870 said:


> Ball Clover still in bloom... been blooming year-round...


Off topic, but what are the hardiness zones for your ball clover that you guys sell?


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## David LaFerney

valleyman said:


> David,
> Why did you say that the one was not cordovan, was it because her thorax is too dark? Otherwise she looks cordovan.


Maybe she is - but yes because her thorax is quite dark, and because her abdomen does not have that peachy color either. I'm certainly no expert - assuming that the photo is accurate (I believe it is) *is* this queen cordovan color?


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## deknow

Funny...she doesn't look druish.
-Spaceballs


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## guyross

Here is a picture of a SK. https://plus.google.com/photos/113400947700542391177/albums/5643671188354400561


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## guyross

GA here are some photos of Sunkist nucs. https://plus.google.com/photos/113400947700542391177/albums/5643671188354400561


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## David LaFerney

guyross said:


> Here is a picture of a SK.


Very nice - Dr Russell should steal that one for the image on his website. Funny though, mine came marked - with a picture of a native American.


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## Ted Kretschmann

Remember fellows, Alabama is a closed border state. So that means NO bees brought in on comb. Those bees could be quarentined and destroyed!! This law I particularly hate and as the last commercial beekeeper in the state have tried my best to change it. It will take the little beekeepers to change it. So if I have to undergo the pain of living and trying to earn a living in a closed border state, then you little beekeepers will have to too! YOU CAN NOT HAVE BOTH WAYS! The law right now is the law. Tim Hayes could not bring his outfit of 300 colonies of bees into Alabama. Alabama needed those bees. He was forced to sell them. Kieth Fletcher is not allowed to bring his bees across the Tennessee line and he lives in Huntsville. So until the law is changed, NO BEES ON COMB. You buy nucs in Mississippi or elsewhere and bring them into Alabama, you are breaking the law and subject to a 100 dollar fine for every item brought into the state. TED


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## valleyman

David LaFerney said:


> Maybe she is - *is* this queen cordovan color?
> 
> I'm no expert at all but I think that the thorax would be brown if she were cordovan.


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## Joseph Clemens

Cordovan = complete absence of black color in the exoskeleton.


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## rrussell6870

That's correct. The thorax would need to be peach/brown... although I have seen many daughters that still pass on the trait even though they do not show the trait perfectly in their own color... just one of those things where nature makes science have to stop and say, "hmmm"... lol. 

Well the weather man was about as accurate as usual for ms... its 49f instead of 65f, but I did go ahead and snap some pics, just didn't pull the frames... they will be in the next post...


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## guyross

These nucs are on Alabama comb headed by a Sunkist queen. I guess I forgot to mention that. I wouldn't knowingly do anything against the law.


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## rrussell6870

SunKist hive... two deeps, one medium of mini frames, and one shallow of foundation that had been slightly drawn...
Entrance... although you can't see it in the pic, they are quite active and pollen is coming in...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0832.jpg

Top of hive (foundation box)...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0834.jpg

Top of medium mini frame box (with bottom of shallow foundation in rear)...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0835.jpg

Bottom of medium mini frame box...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0836.jpg

Top of upper deep... this yard is the quarantine experimental yard, and while these hives were never infected by afb, the entire yard was treated according to my policy... the powder that you see here is the last of the treatment that the bees have not taken... also, you may note that this hive has a drone frame in the center... this is part of a test to see what effects location of drone frames will have on the timing of drone production in early spring...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0837.jpg

Top of lower deep...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0838.jpg

Average bee coverage for this hive is 14 deep frames... brood and stores could not be calculated due to temps and wind... but the medium mini frames had not been touched yet... the upper deep was very heavy giving the impression that any brood frames in it were well banded with stores...


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## rrussell6870

Sunkist Cordovan hive... double deep October split... the upper deep was drawn in October/November... I took the top off and it was completely covered with bees so I bumped it on the ground in front of the hive... I took all of these pics with no smoke, and no hat or gloves on, and this hive was extremely active and over crowded... in short, I had to close it up and move on... I will try again when the weather is better and they will not be so protective...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0829.jpg


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## rrussell6870

Moonbeam hive... two deeps (the upper deep with three outer frames of foundation to study comb building throughout winter), and one medium of foundation on top...

Entrance... more active than the pic shows...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0833.jpg

Top of upper deep with bottom of medium foundation in rear...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0839.jpg

Bottom of upper deep...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0841.jpg

Top of lower deep...
http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b404/RussellApiaries/IMAG0840.jpg

Average bee coverage for this hive is 13 deep frames... brood and stores could not be calculated due to temp and wind, however, the upper deep was quite heavy even with three frames of foundation in it, leading to the assumption that the brood frames in this chamber are still well banded with stores...


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## hystad

Did these hives receive any supplemental feeding?


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## Specialkayme

Impressive pics. As expected, it just made me more anxious


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## rrussell6870

hystad said:


> Did these hives receive any suplimental feeding?


No. No feeding or treating for anything aside from the powdered sugar/Tylosin mixture for last year.

Instead of feeding, I prefer to just spread seeds at different intervals... this causes a mild bloom year round and of course placement has a lot to do with that...


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## ga.beeman

thanks guys for the pics


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## Joseph Clemens

It's Winter, and watching most hives with foragers out in 40'sF and just as the sun is coming up they are bringing in several different shades of pollen. That behavior is something I am not quite familiar with from most other "strains" of bees I had been keeping. Several hives are already beginning to build up their populations. This will be my first Spring with SunKist Cordovan's, I can hardly wait.

I have built more benches and am working on building more 4-way, 3-frame, medium mating condo's.


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## preciousbees

i just went to the hives today, sneaked a peek at a Nuc of Sunkist, not cor. colored, and they are doing very well, really suprised they look so good. We have been blessed with a much milder winter than normal, but, I will take any advantage I can get. I will be adding to my Queens with more of R. Russells Queens, very satisfied with them.


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## rrussell6870

Ok guys... so how are they looking so far this spring?


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## Specialkayme

Nice to see you back Doc!


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## balhanapi

Had started 2sunkist(not cordovan) and 2vsh nucs last summer. They all are doing great. I think sunkists are stretching their stores too far. Vsh are more cautious with stores. Sunkists are the biggest clusters I've seen at this time of year. 3-4 frames of brood vs 1-2 in VSH. I had to feed one of the sunkist.
I'm very happy. I think I like VSH better so far. Time will tell.


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## thenance007

Dr. Russell you mentioned seeding at intervals. I just ordered a lb. of ball clover from you and then read that you are supposed to plant it in Oct/Nov. Can I plant it this Spring in Nashville TN? There are some roadsides that would benefit from some bee forage. . .also would it bloom this season or is it biennial?


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## rrussell6870

Balhanapi, the Sunkists will fly further, progress to forager faster, and fly in cooler weather than most bees... thus even in early buildup, they tend to find what they need to make it work... as a commercial bee, I always recommend that they winter in doubles with a super... the resulting populations are well worth the space...

Nance, it will bloom this season... you just want to get it down while its cooler and before it dries up... as long as there is precipitation, it will continue to bloom... it reseeds itself very well, and whatever stand you get this year, will grow much larger next year... I have been researching the effects of clover for sometime now in the hopes that it may be able to offer an offset to the lack of cover crops in field crops and over fed soils in orchards... the idea is to incorporate the use of clovers as for these purposes as well as roadsides in order to not only be beneficial for the immediate use, but also to provide a food source for bees that has been diminished over the last few decades with heavier mowing and hedgerow clearing...


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## David LaFerney

rrussell6870 said:


> Balhanapi, the Sunkists will fly further, progress to forager faster, and fly in cooler weather than most bees... thus even in early buildup, they tend to find what they need to make it work... as a commercial bee, I always recommend that they winter in doubles with a super... the resulting populations are well worth the space...


That's exactly what I'm seeing so far. My SC daughter queens are stand outs too.


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## Mbeck

Welcome back Dr.Russell


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## preciousbeesfarm

Well, I just checked my Sunkist hives today, the original Queen is doing very well, with 4 frames of brood, both sides, lots of fuzzy little new bees, the daughter of a Sunkist Queen that went into winter fairly light, has 3 partial frames of brood, all are doing well, considering we are in the middle of March in IOWA! Could still get nasty around here, but it was wonderfull to get into the hives so early. 78 for a high today, way nice. Paul


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## mrsl

Dr. Russell, I got a Sunkist nuc last summer that exploded - overwintered 4 deeps high (10 frame), completely drawn out (I had planned to split the hive, but the cold weather arrived before I could do so). The hive swarmed on me this week, but I was able to catch the swarm and I split the hive into 4 hives, all with at least one capped queen cell. If they build up this year like they did last year I should be able to get a honey crop from them also  They are some awesome bees!


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## millerwb

Thanks Doc for the emails and taking care of my order. Looking forward to the SKCs


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## Matt Beekman

Great thread. I am currently grafting from a Northern Select SunKist breeder queen I purchased last fall and have to say I am truly amazed with its' genetics. Out of all of my breeders, it has put on the most weight and significantly outgrown all the the others. During the winter it was pulling in a tremendous amount of pollen while all the others were not even flying. Based on my observations, I would concur that forages from the colony cover a larger area in terms of gathering pollen and nectar than most bees. Definitely something special.


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## Joseph Clemens

rrussell6870 said:


> Ok guys... so how are they looking so far this spring?


They are looking good, very good.

Well, I'm presently running all my hives and nucs with Russell Apiaries SunKist Cordovan stock. Also all my hives and nucs are no longer headed by earlier rounds of daughter queens. Most of the more recent queens show a large percentage of Cordovan female offspring, many producing almost 100% Cordovan workers. All colonies, whether Cordovan or non-Cordovan are easily managed and not overly defensive, as well as very industrious. In earlier years a small percentage of open mated daughter queens would develop colonies with somewhat overly defensive traits. Unexpectedly I have not yet seen that happen while I've been working with the SunKist Cordovan strain. 

I'm still using the same MQs, originally obtained from Russell Apiaries, and though sometimes a few of their daughters are not homozygous for the Cordovan trait, most are. Presently I am even evaluating a few of these new daughters as possible MQs. 

Of course that doesn't permit me to make any direct comparisons, but I can still compare them with memories of my previous bees. Today we had some much needed rain, enough to hopefully continue the wildflower flow we've been enjoying for the past month or so. Between storms I went out to see how things were going: it was approximately 45F, a little breezy, and dark with clouds; most colonies were flying, I was surprised and fascinated. They weren't bringing in pollen, of course, but I'm wondering what it is they were up to.


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## fhlowrimore

I received my Sunkist Cordovan Queens in June 2011. I have been feeding them 1/1 sugar syrup all winter. These hives are in 10 frame brood boxes on 8 1/2" foundations. The bees are very mild and easy to work. Eight frames are full of brood, eggs, honey and pollen.
Two frames have uncapped nectar. All hives have good numbers with some capped Drones. One hive has a few hatched Drones with a started Queen cell. The weather was 73* with mild winds. I am very satisfied with Russell's Sunkist Cordovan Queens.

Henry Lowrimore


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## David LaFerney

I got into a couple of my SK daughterqueen hives today to shake out some more nurse bees, and they are very gentle and very prolific with large amts of brood. These would be good bees for amatuer queen producers to keep for bulk bees even if you wanted to propogate another genetic line.


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## sfisher

How are everybodies Sunkist hives doing?


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## David LaFerney

Yes I know, ugliest hive you ever saw - full of honey though.


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## Mbeck

I'm guessing you don't have bears in Cookeville?


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## David LaFerney

I sure hope not.


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## timgoodin

Are any of you guys on your second or third generation of sunkist? I've got some ordered but not arrived yet just wondering how the genetics hold up after a couple of generations mating with local stock?

Tim
West KY


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## Joseph Clemens

I like the SunKist Cordovan, this way I use the queens received directly from Russell Apiaries as my mother queens, then raise daughters from them, selecting the daughters for their Cordovan color, eliminating any that are not Cordovan colored. I then use these SunKist Cordovan daughters to produce drones (they only produce Cordovan drones), helping to ensure future SunKist Cordovan daughters can find some drones that are also Cordovan.

I live and beekeep in a location that is said to be highly colonized by AHB's.

I've raised many batches of queens, spanning what could be several generations of queens, but have only produced a few daughter queens that I've deemed worthy to be graduated to mother queens, themselves. So, even though their has been enough time to create several "generations" of queens from my original mother queens, I actually continue producing the majority of daughter queens from the surviving original mother queens, plus some daughters that were selected to also become mother queens. Of course those daughters that have been advanced to mother queen, are 2nd generation, and if any of their daughters are then also selected to be mother queens, that would be 3rd generation. Also, using the Cordovan trait, and using only Cordovan colored queens as mother queens, makes it much easier to eliminate infiltration of undesirable genetics. I also destroy all drones that aren't Cordovan, whenever I see them. When I do keep daughter queens that aren't Cordovan themselves, I only keep them if their mother was Cordovan. I only produce non-Cordovan daughter queens from certain queens that are themselves non-Cordovan, but severely restrict their ability to produce drones that could interfere with my Cordovan mating goals. 

So far, unlike other strains of Italian Cordovan bees that I've raised in my location, the SunKist Cordovan have remained more true to their original "type". Other strains had developed some small percentage of excessive "hotness", likely due to open mating with undesirable drones. So far, none of the SunKist Cordovan daughter queens has developed any significant degree of excessive defensiveness, though a few have shown themselves to be a little runnier than I like, especially if I use too much smoke. I try to identify these and eliminate them before they produce very many drones.

And, I have taken extra care to produce an abundance of desirable drones in the area to help increase desirable matings.


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