# Old Sol Apiaries



## Heavygear88 (Jul 1, 2016)

Hello everyone I am a new member to the forum, but I have been lurking in the background for years now soaking up all the information. I have also been keeping bees for about 4 years now. As my first post I just wanted to drop a message about Old Sol Apiaries. I just recently ordered two Caucasian queens from them and am more then satisfied, and I feel they deserve a kudos for the excellent service they provided. Their was an error on their part with my ship dates and and error on my part with my credit card information, and even with the confusion and me worrying the snot out of them they made right on everything. And the nice lady on the other end of the phone (I never got her name) was wonderful to deal with. They will most definitely get my buisiness again and I hope others who read this will give them a chance also, I can promise you will not be disappointed. Errors happen and some companies simply do not care but Old Sol definitely does and was quick to rectify everything. Now hopefully these queens live up to the same standards as their breeders haha.


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## Colobee (May 15, 2014)

I inquired about their "select" queens, a few years ago. I inquired again. 'Never heard back from them. 

I guess fate was telling me "Don't get Carnies, you're too old to start chasing swarms again"...:lookout:


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## Brandy (Dec 3, 2005)

I/We got a bunch of their "select queens" for a queen testing project and they couldn't have been more supportive, sending us the best they had and some extra. Can't say enough about both their company and their products.


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## dlbrightjr (Dec 8, 2015)

Good to hear. I've ordered some Caucasians too.


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## Heavygear88 (Jul 1, 2016)

The Caucasian queens were very good looking. I haven't had them long enough to pass judgement, but they looked very healthy.


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## dlbrightjr (Dec 8, 2015)

The one Caucasian I have right now has been very docile. Much more docile than the Italians I have. The have also only taken around a quart of syrup while the Italians have literally taken gallons. Now the Caucasian is in town and the Italians are out in the country so not a fair comparison. The Caucasians have stayed busy bringing in stores. I'm hoping to put several hives in town next year and I hope they all prove to be as docile as this hive. We shall see.


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## e-spice (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks for providing input on them. I was considering getting a few queens from them.


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## Marti (Jun 29, 2014)

Recently ordered some Caucasians and they look good and laying well. Next time I need queens, I will be getting Caucasuians from Old Sol Apiaries


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## thomas (Apr 23, 2006)

I have gotten several queens from them and i have been very happy with what i got thier caucasians do not look like the one i have mine is jet black while these look brown. But i can not complain the service is great and Misty i awesome i am searching for more of a black caucasian then brown and will find them some day but now i will have to breed off the one i got from Homans they have great Caucasians also.

Thomas


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## EastSideBuzz (Apr 12, 2009)

I have ordered from him before. Great queens.


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## kilocharlie (Dec 27, 2010)

Heavy - Welcome to Beesource!

Thomas - Now that's strange - I have never seen black, nor brown Caucasian stock. Caucasus Mountains bees from Georgia are GREY. individual queens may have different colors, but mine were grey/ dark cream banded workers with grey/brownish (more like iced coffee) queens. I only had 2 colonies, wiped out by a spray rig back in 2009 or 2010, as I recall.

I think you'd be wise to get some, with so few suppliers around. Caucasian bees are excellent for beginners.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

Thanks for the good feedback folks. We have been experiencing serious growth in demand and have had to hire some help answering the phone this year. This will be our 4th year with the Caucasians and we have been extremely pleased with the genetics, even the F2s and F3s. It seems like we are getting some excellent hybrid vigor crossing them with our Survivor Stock and they are slowly increasing in abundance as an overall % of our population. The last two II breeders we got from Sue Cobey lasted two full seasons and were 100% hygenic on several tests by BIP and daughters showed a high degree of heritablility of this trait. We are looking forward to getting some more pure breeders from Sue this year and have several F2 and F3 Caucasian queens that are in the running to be breeders this year. More alleles in the gene pool is a good think and i would thank Sue Cobey and Steve Sheppard for their work in bringing these genetics to the USA.


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## dlbrightjr (Dec 8, 2015)

Still very pleased with the 10 I ordered last fall. Still 10 for 10 and they look good as of 02-11-17.


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## JBJ (Jan 27, 2005)

kilocharlie said:


> Heavy - Welcome to Beesource!
> 
> Thomas - Now that's strange - I have never seen black, nor brown Caucasian stock. Caucasus Mountains bees from Georgia are GREY. individual queens may have different colors, but mine were grey/ dark cream banded workers with grey/brownish (more like iced coffee) queens. I only had 2 colonies, wiped out by a spray rig back in 2009 or 2010, as I recall.
> 
> I think you'd be wise to get some, with so few suppliers around. Caucasian bees are excellent for beginners.


The breeders we graft from are purebred II queens from Sue Cobey. I was also surprised to see some variation of coloration. Upon further research I found there are several phenotypes.
https://www.google.com/search?q=cau...QsAQILA#tbm=isch&q=caucasian+bees+queen+color


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