# Russell Apiaries New York



## Beregondo (Jun 21, 2011)

Last week I ordered 3 Hybrid 410 queens from Kale Luce at Russell Apiaries NY.
As I understand it, he is an independent "subproducer" licensed to sell queens produced by Russell Apiaries, grafted from breeder queens provided by Robert Russell.

Kale did a great job of packaging my queens and managed to get them to me overnight without paying for Express mail.
By modifying a Priority Mail box for proper ventilation and and to secure the cages, he was able to get them to me the next day. If you live outside of New York, I don't know if it would be as quick or not, but he says he has good success with this way of shipping, and it costs much less, as well.

Kale called when the queens shipped, and has been very "available", promptly answering email and phone queries.

The queens lay quite heavily. One of them had half of a partially drawn frame of foundation filled, laying in any cell that had a tiny bit of wall built up.

One queen disappeared on release. I couldn't find her on inspection, and found no eggs or larvae.
Kale volunteered that if there is still no sign of her in a couple days, he'd replace her.

I think that that is very generous, as I think it just as likely that the problem was due to me making an error as it is that it was a problem with the queen.

I'm ordering another queen from Kale this week, waiting only to see if the 'missing' queen is present and starts laying before the end of the week.

Hybrid 410 queens are a mix of bees from Alaska, the Northwest Territories of Canada, and Moonbeams.
I'm expecting that they'll do well on our upstate New york winters.


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