# Russell Apiaries



## theriverhawk (Jun 5, 2009)

*Re: Issues with Russell Apiaries?*

Can you say NICOT system???


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

*Re: Issues with Russell Apiaries?*

Look at it like this would you rather have the queens on time and not mated well or a little late and mated, beekeeping is farming.


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

*Re: Issues with Russell Apiaries?*

First of all, I have never purchased queens from Russell, but I have communicated several times with him and of course he is VERY willing to provide input to this forum with the level of experience that is not typical of most members. From my perspective, they appear to be expanding their operations by increasing their web presence this season, which may result in some growing pains (full voice mail, etc) until they get it all figured out. However, you don't build a business with the history that Russell Apiaries has by not performing well over the long run. I am confident that there will be NO significant issues. If by chance there are minor problems, they appear to be the type of business that would go the extra mile to make it right. BTW, it is pretty much the norm for queen breeders to request some level of payment at the time of the order. Can you imagine the "issues" if they didn't?


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## Jaseemtp (Nov 29, 2010)

*Re: Issues with Russell Apiaries?*

I could understand your frustration over this, but think about how busy they must be right now. Just like Honeyman stated wouldnt you rather have your queens mated and ready to go than have them ontime but not be to the standard you expect. I have not purchased queens from Russell yet, but plan on it this summer. You can drop him a pm here or on his site
http://russellapiaries.webs.com/
just join the forums and he does get to every one. As stated earlier beekeeping is farming, the weather is out of our controll.

Jason


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

*Re: Issues with Russell Apiaries?*

Papar,
I am in the same situation as you. I actually have 20 frames of brood waiting for the queens that were supposed to be shipped yesterday. However Robert seems to be making things work. I am sure they are busy. Every response I have gotten from him seems to be from his mobile phone. He probably has no time to sit at the computer. Yes I am going to start trying to breed my own queens as I have a Nicot system from last year.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

So I must ask a small question & that is how do you control the weather???


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Maybe you're saying the same thing, but I would phrase it this way:

How do you control your potential customers? One can't control the weather, but you do have control over how you manage the unpredictable within your business.


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## ChristopherA (Jul 20, 2010)

I find Robert, or Russells Apiary is on the up and up. He has personally gone out of his way to help many people to include myself. As others as says, and I know for first hand, the weather has hindered breeding in my area. It happens in this field, heck check with the Cali breeders and package producers they will tell you the same.

ChristopherA


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

When you get your queens be sure and revisit this thread to tell us how it turns out. Ever try to get in touch with your accountant on April 13? I'm guessing this is crunch time for queen breeders. Try to be patient.


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## Vance G (Jan 6, 2011)

Go to their website as directed and ask Mr. Russell civilly about your order and you will get an answer ASAP. He gives out a lot of experience helping people that is invaluable on his website as well as on this forum. Just cool yer jets a tad. They are pinching virgins in California by the hundred and probably thousands because of weather. You want some of them? If he just shipped to be on your schedule, you could very well get your drone layer. I understand your impatience, I just bothered my supplier about my order and it is two weeks out.


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## paintingpreacher (Jul 29, 2006)

Don't know how the weather has been in his area but here in the north central part of the state the weather has been lousy. Cold and wet,,,, I have not opened a hive in 6-7 days.


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## TwinkieBee (Feb 21, 2011)

Robert is VERY hard to reach by phone but email or pm him and he's usually pretty timely to respond. From what i understand he has SEVERAL mating yards and they are widespread so it may be only cloudy in the area in which you checked and pouring wherever he needs to be to catch your queens. I myself have sat on my porch and the weather said sunny when it was pouring and vice versa.  If you want bad customer service you should have dealt with Robert's father!! He was a great man but he even took his answering machine out and only sold to those he happened to answer the phone for! Do anything he could to help you (as long as he wasn't busy and you were lucky enough to catch him). :lpf: But the knowledge they bring to the industry is well worth it. In my opinion


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

We respond to every email and pm in the order in which they are received and have responded to each message from papar in a very timely manner. 

We send out "Weather Updates" via email to every customer that is going to be affected by our having to postpone shipping due to poor weather conditions. 

We will NOT catch queens in the rain, ship queens during bad weather, or ship any queens that are not mated and laying.

Yes, we are a large operation, but quality is always our top priority over quantity.

We fully understand the stresses that a delayed shipment can cause... but at the same time, we can not provide "junk" or DEAD queens just to meet schedules.

We can not control the weather, and we DO make every effort to provide information to our customers to help them make adjustments when the unforeseen happens.

In this case, we offered to purchase replacement queens from the customers choice of supplier at our expense and offered to catch and ship on Thursday (when we are expecting a shot of sunshine) and ship them Overnight Air at our expense to help the customer as much as possible.

The terms "Weather Permitting" and "ALL SHIP DATES ARE TENTATIVE" are used on our website to remind customers of the possibilities of these issues.

We do NOT bank queens... We catch queens on the ship date or the day before the ship date (which in this case was raining as well).

Until last summer, we did not sell to the public... Only retail and large commercial operations... So we are still adjusting to going from 80,000 queens amongst 150-200 customers, to 80,000 queens amongst 3,700+ customers. I feel that we have done fairly well in this transition, however, telephone communications are still very limited. We did not expect to have anywhere near the call volume that we are having... Email and PM remains the best way to reach us. 

We do require full payment at the time of the order, because there is no way that we could keep up with tracking down second payments before the ship dates and keep up with who has paid before we catch... its is far better to get all of the payment issues out of the way in advance so that we know exactly what to catch and when to catch it.

Its unfortunate that issues like this arrise, but it does happen, and when it does, we always make every effort to help.


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## BillyH (Apr 19, 2010)

As a fellow bee keeper in the same state as Russell, the weather has been bad the last few days and even today the storm alerts have stated ealry on TV.
Just google "Mississippi weather'

Russell helped me when I first started out and is great to work with, just be patient and don't worry. Last year I order four Queens from him and I will order more from him this year.


Thank You: :lookout:
BillyH
Carson, Mississippi


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## WilliamsHoneyBees (Feb 17, 2010)

In response to Russell's post...:applause:


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## papar (Apr 10, 2007)

I appreciate what Barry said.

I do respect and appreciate all the knowledge that Russell's brings to the beekeeping world. 

I don't need to be told about the weather and how that plays into beekeeping.

I don't appreciate being told the queens will be shipping out, then 4 days later told they are postponed a full week. I call that being jerked around!!

Weather can throw a lot of curve balls, I guess!


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

I don't have any experience with Robert's queens, although I have two on order right now.

His customer service, all things considered, seems excellent so far. He goes way out of his way, even considering his packed schedule, to help me with my own personal beekeeping issues. This includes helping me to learn how to rear my own queens (what queen producer is actually interested in helping you become self sufficient?). Robert is amazing, and I'd wait twice as long for his queens as I would for anyone elses, simply based on his mentality about the industry.

Hopefully, whenever the weather clears and my queens make it here, they will perform HALF as good as Robert does!


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## ronnyclif (Jul 5, 2004)

I would rahter be patient and get a well mated queen, rather than get a queen likely to be a drone layer due to poor weather conditions. It is not just the day that you catch the queen but rather the weather while she is taking her mating flights that is critical!


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

As a queen producer I can tell you that things are VERY unpredictable. You often end up with half as many or twice as many as you anticipated. The old addage "don't count your chickens before the hatch" is very applicable to queens. Unfortunately, this also applies to the customers, as you can't ship queens you don't have and you can't predict with 100% certainty how many queens you'll have when. Customers who are used to buying items that are simply on the shelf and ship the same day sometimes have trouble adjusting expectations to something as unpredictable as queens. It is frustrating, I know, when you have plans and those queens are part of those plans and they have to be adjusted. But that's the reality of it. And, as pointed out, sometimes the weather makes it impossible to ship either because of heat (and they would die on the way) or rain (hard to catch hundreds of queens in a day of pouring rain).

The other thing is that spring is the busiest time of the year and sometimes it is impossible to keep up with everything.


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## frazzledfozzle (May 26, 2010)

Russell you are a very brave man going "public" with your queens!

Just wait for the onslaught of phone calls wanting to ask 1001 questions about beekeeping it seems that as soon as you ship a queen it comes with free beekeeping advice for as long as needed no matter the time of day or night and how busy you may or maynot be! 

Have even been asked if we could help with the first honey harvest!

as others have said weather plays a very big part in queen raising and nothing can be gauranteed, it comes down to looking after your bread and butter customers first and doing your best with whats left for the rest.

frazz


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## ChristopherA (Jul 20, 2010)

On a personal note, I find it hard to believe Mr. R. Russell takes his time to email or answer forum posts. I myself have had almost every question answered. For me, the information is so valuable to learning to become a quality queen breeder. I think Robert goes above and beyond and in most post in the forum or email wishes to see more people breeding queens. That in itself says something.


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## TwinkieBee (Feb 21, 2011)

Barry said:


> Maybe you're saying the same thing, but I would phrase it this way:
> 
> How do you control your potential customers? One can't control the weather, but you do have control over how you manage the unpredictable within your business.


Sounds like the Russells have gone the extra mile to do just that. The buyer said that he got a confirmation on the 23rd saying that they planned to ship on the 28th then he recieved an email warning of weather issues for the 28th and 29th. That sounds like good customer service to me. 

They even said that they would send them overnight on thursday which would have them arriving on Friday. Isnt that when he was suppose to get them to begin with?

I am still not seeing the issue. Its Tuesday and the buyer has already started a complaint thread about a top notch company that is going above and beyond for the customer.

I have read Mr. Russell advise against shipping UPS because of rough handling and no way to insure. I am sure he is going against his own better judgement by risking his queens to make sure that the buyer is happy. 

Do you feel that there is more that he could or should have done? Barry or anyone?


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## PDG honey (Jul 31, 2010)

Wow! Quality is the most important product a queen breeder can provide. I've heard alot of complaints about how the bee industry queens aren't up to par for the last few years. Russell Apiaries have always made sure their customers get high quality queens, that is properly mated. I know this for a fact. Just a few weeks ago Mr. R Russell had me and many others smashing over a thousand queens and planting new cells just a few weeks ago. We had a cold snap followed by rain. He knew they had not maited perfectly. Thats over 50,000 dollars in loses just to make sure his queens are perfect. He goes far beyond great quality. I've seen him give breeder queens away at regular queen prices. Just to fill and satisfy his customer. Just as said before he will be getting his queens on time. Why post such a thread.


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## MichaBees (Sep 26, 2010)

I have nothing but high remarks for his service. 

For those who do not understand, or can not cope with the unpredictable on this beebusiness; grow up!


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

After reading this thread I believe I'm gonna order some queens from Russell. Those Sunkist Cordovans sound sweet. Late May shipment is fine, maybe the weather will even out by then.


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## Riskybizz (Mar 12, 2010)

Papar

It appears to be quite evident that your "'I want it now" attitude is not going to gain you much sympathy on this site. There are many VERY knowledgeable people on here, who earn their living raising and keeping bees. From time to time they loose a LOT of money because of the unforseen variables in trying to run a business like raising queens. I have been in the retail business for over 25 years and always try to bite my tongue when an unreasonabale customer makes unreasonable demands. I have on occasion however made exceptions to that rule and told them if they don't like the way I do business, then they should take their business elsewhere. From time to time things need to be said. Respect is a two way street. It appears that Mr. Russell has bent over backwards to make things right, and I am not surprised. 

"I don't need to be told about the weather and how that plays into beekeeping" (but maybe you do need to be told to lighten up and be a little more sympathetic to the situation) because nobody is "jerking you around" Good luck to you and your bees.


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## Specialkayme (Sep 4, 2005)

papar said:


> I don't appreciate being told the queens will be shipping out, then 4 days later told they are postponed a full week. I call that being jerked around!!


I don't understand what's confusing. If he sends out an email on the 23rd saying they will be shipped on the 28th, then tells you four days later they will be postponed a week, that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

The four days that it took him to push it back a week was because of the weather conditions involved in catching, mating, and shipping, not just shipping alone. If it rains on Monday and Tuesday, it might not affect how the postal carrier operates on Friday, and it might not affect how you can catch the queen on Thursday, but it will affect how well the queen is mated.

Take the time, and get the good queen. It will save money in the long run.



papar said:


> My issue is that with a company as large as Russell Apiaries advertises its self to be the customer service is just not there.





papar said:


> I have tried to communicate with Russell Apiaries but don't feel satisfied with the service.


Personally, I find Robert's interest in us little guys nothing short of charity. Sure I'm paying for the queen, but when he is getting blank checks from commercial operators every year saying "send whatever you can," the fact that he is interested in filling my order of 2 queens seems shocking. I wouldn't be doing it.

That being said, he's a busy man, with a father that passed away recently, and a growing business. I don't expect an answer today. If you didn't receive an answer at all, ever, then I would be concerned.

Two emails in four days covering the status of your order? What more could you ask for?

But hey, if you arn't satisfied with the service, I would invite you to find another supplier. I know Robert won't be interested in saying so, but I don't have an issue with it. A dozen people are waiting to take your business. We all win, we all get satisfied.



papar said:


> I was asked to PAY in ADVANCE for my queens. I feel that I have some cause for concern at this point.


I think that's the norm now a days. When I buy a queen (or nuc, or even the occasional package) I get concerned when they DON'T ask me to pay up front. 

If they get your payment in, bingo, you have a binding obligation for them to sell you it. If they don't get it in advance, things become a lot more questionable as to whether or not they will be interested in selling you the same queen for the same price (depending on the breeder) especially when supply goes south, demand goes up, and prices skyrocket.


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## soupcan (Jan 2, 2005)

I must ask a some what strange question in all this back & forth!!!
PAPAR how long have you been in the bee buzz???


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

For an unbiased opinion.
I've never done business with Russel, & would strongly consider buying from him after hearing how well he handled you're order. :thumbsup:

Some suppliers don't correspond at all.

As far as timing, remember its agriculture. The whole business is at the mercy of the weather. & we are asking the suppliers to put out queens at the most difficult time of year, so we can get an early start. Local swarm time would be the ideal time for the producers to make queens.


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## NorthernIllinoisPlumber (Aug 17, 2010)

So the Consumer report forum has turned into the Member Report forum??? 

Russell responded, why all the personal attacks and debate? 

Everyone has a different expectation of customer service.


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## TwinkieBee (Feb 21, 2011)

A lot of people are very grateful to Russell for his help and great service and i believe that most here felt it premature to complain when the queens would still arrive on time just wouldn't be shipped out on the specified day due to the weather. I felt it was a personal attack on Russell by papar saying he was jerked around simply because Russell sent a confirmation email saying he planned to ship on the 28th and then sent an email 4 days later saying it would be delayed due to rain. It's a consumer report so other consumers and people in the industry felt the need to post their opinion on how the situation was handled as well as their opinion of the company. I also feel that most here are eager to see Russell raise the bar in the industry. Now that they are not just wholesale we will all reap the rewards of them out performing others and making others have to step up their standards as well. Wouldnt it be great if all suppliers took the measures that Russell takes? Again, i ask, what more could Russell have done?


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## MARBIS (Jun 10, 2010)

papar said:


> I also ordered 50 queens from another supplier here on beesource for the same time period, paid in advance, and will be delayed there to.


It's hard, impossible to predict an exact date when weather is not cooperating. Talked to my supplier and my May queens just became early June queens. Looks like this spring everything is delayed.


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## papar (Apr 10, 2007)

What was frustraiting again was the advanced notice to ship and then the rescheduling for a week later, perhaps it was unrealistic for me to expect anything short of you get them when we can get them to you. After this thread started Mr. Russell agreed to ship them this week which was not the original response I got back. For those that don't understand my situation then we must agree to disagree. Being out of state on expenses made waiting a week longer a tough pill to swallow but again to some that is no big deal, for me, it makes a huge difference. I have learned from this experience and all your responses.
Thanks for your direct opinions.


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## rrussell6870 (May 14, 2009)

Guess I should give an update here. Papar's queens were shipped UPS overnight air today. They will arrive tomorrow morning. I will add that my shipping them this way had nothing to do with this thread, it was my way of trying to do what I could to get him his queens on the day that he needed them. I do not like shipping queens this way, as UPS is very tough on packages and does not offer any form of insurance. Papars situation was unique in that he was out of state awaiting these queens for splits... that is the only reason that I could justify doing what I feel is not the safest thing for the queens. Thank you all for your support. I know it is hard to reach us, especially to reach me directly... we are doing everything that we can to try to keep a high level of customer service while not sacrificing quality queens and safe delivery. Thanks for your understanding.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

papar said:


> For those that don't understand my situation then we must agree to disagree. Being out of state on expenses made waiting a week longer a tough pill to swallow


I think some prematurely jumped in here giving their opinion. There are two sides to every situation. I'm not taking sides, but in things like this, both parties have real costs on the line and it is paramount that clear and open communication take place between the parties.


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## TwinkieBee (Feb 21, 2011)

It was a premature complaint which is exactly why i jumped in to defend Russell. From papar and russell's statements there was open communication as well. Both parties have real costs on the line in which the supplier (Russell Apiaries) was trying to protect the customer's needs. The customer (papar) however did not feel the need to protect Russell Apiaries reputation thus leading others to feel the need to do so. 1: confirmation email saying they were preparing to ship. 2: email saying it was delayed due to weather. 3: offering to ship 1 day Ups and spending more on shipping to make sure they arrived on time. That seems very open communication to me. For the 3rd time i ask, What more could Russell have done?


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

Just ordered some May queens from Russell. I think his customer service is over the top compared to others I've dealt with.


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## giant pumpkin peep (Mar 14, 2009)

I think russell handled the issue best he could. I ordered a queen from a supplier last year, and called them on the ship date to confirm my queen had been shipped. They said that the carni queen wasn't avilible yet becuase they had trouble getting the breeder to lay and it would be a couple more weeks.  They never gave me a call, and said hey,,,,your queen will be delayed.


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## papar (Apr 10, 2007)

As Barry indicates, there are two sides to every story, perhaps my inquiry about certain issues with Russell's turned into something more. I will not get into the details about why I was dissappointed with the PROCESS of getting the queens, which I might add has nothing to do with quality of product.
I just received the queens and will check them out shortly but I'm certain with all the positive marketing, they will be nothing short of excellent.
Through this I have re-learned the lesson that, you aint got it, till you got it in your hands.

Thanks to all and good luck


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## camero7 (Sep 21, 2009)

papar said:


> Through this I have re-learned the lesson that, you aint got it, till you got it in your hands.


That's the story of farming. I've been a farmer for 40 years and it never changes.


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## MTINAZ (Jan 15, 2010)

rrussell6870 said:


> Until last summer, we did not sell to the public... Only retail and large commercial operations... So we are still adjusting to going from 80,000 queens amongst 150-200 customers, to 80,000 queens amongst 3,700+ customers. I feel that we have done fairly well in this transition, however, telephone communications are still very limited. We did not expect to have anywhere near the call volume that we are having... Email and PM remains the best way to reach us.


I think this is the issue, as no one is debating if he is a good guy or a good company. I personally have sent 3-4 emails about an order that was paid for in Jan. and never did receive a response. Over all I am just expecting the queens to be worth any lack of communication this change in business practice has caused.


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## Ted Kretschmann (Feb 2, 2011)

Papar, you must not know a whole lot about queen breeding or the breeding industry. When the weather turns freakishly cold and queen nucs get frozen out and die........When the weather is cold and wet, queens do not mate.........Thus suddenly there is a glut of cells that can not be used that would have replaced the mated queens that were to be caught from the nucs..Rain,you cannot shake packages to make up replacement nucs or grafting nucs......Breeder's operations revolve just like any other farm--around the weather. Mr. Russell went above and beyond as a professional to get you your queen bees. TK Alabama bee company-former package producer.


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## WI-beek (Jul 14, 2009)

I ordered some queen ( NOT from Russel) last year for early June and did not get them till end of July. If I get my queens within a week or two of the PLANNED SHIP DATE Im impressed. Queen rearing is farming and there are many variables that affect the outcome. I ordered some queen this year from R. Russel after seeing many posts from him here. He has alway got back to me with answers to my questions. What worries me most is that he may decide playing with hobby or sideliners is not worth all the time he has to commit to petty b.s. He has to be one of the busiest people on earth.

I noticed someone posted they had brood waiting for queens to arrive. I would never make up a nuc until I am certain my queens have shipped and will arrive the next day. 

Those who are getting there queens close to on time this year are lucky. I have nothing but push back, push back on queens, packages, and nucs.


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## kbfarms (Jan 28, 2010)

*Russell Apiaries :thumbsup:*

Received queens this week from them. OUTSTANDING queens!! Nice, big healthy looking, ACTIVE queens. All the attendents alive and active. Really pleased with how they looked. Picked up English Buckfast and Carni. Can not wait to get the Sunkist. Highly recommend :thumbsup:


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