Dear Fellow Beekeeper,

    I believe that the pure Russian honeybee queens that I raise and sell are better queens than most commercial grade queens that are sold today.  I also believe that pure Russian queens are the best queens that you can buy.  I have always believed that the length of time that the queen is allowed to establish her brood nest in her mating nuc is inversely related to supersedure and is directly related to acceptance by the new colony after she is shipped. A published scientific study has confirmed this theorem, please see:  Rhodes, Somerville, Hardin. 2004 Queen honeybee introduction and early survival - effects of queen age at introduction. Apidologie, 35:383-388. Read on and see for yourself how quality queens are still possible in today's time and age and why you should invest a few extra dollars today in order to save a lot more tomorrow while getting away from chemical treatments and using proven and tested pure Russian Queens that have higher rates of acceptance and lower rates of supersedure.

Sincerely,

 

Chuck Norton

Reidsville, NC

 

PS. The honeybee queens that I raise for sale are top quality Pure Russian Honeybee Queens.  Please Note: I am not selling splits, NUCS, or packages of honeybees this calendar year. I will have 3, 4, or 5 frame Russian nucs available in April 2009 for pick up only.

 

 

The Russian Honeybee: Demonstrated Superior Genetics Plus A Strong Commitment For The Future

 

    It really takes a lot of work to raise superior quality queens for sale. It takes time, it takes know-how, and it takes superior genetics. As far as genetics is concerned in my opinion the Russian honeybee carries the desired genetics that is needed to combat the Varroa mite, the tracheal mite, and produce honey in commercial quantities. It is more resistant to the Varroa mite than any other race of honeybees except perhaps the Africanized honeybee. Did you know that the Russian honeybee is naturally resistant to the tracheal mite.  You should also know that the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association Protocol specifies that drone mother colonies,  and all line-breeding colonies undergoing evaluation not be treated with any chemicals. I have not used any chemical treatments for any of my colonies for two years now. I am a  member of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association whose purpose is to maintain and improve the various lines of Russian honeybees through propagation and selective breeding. Not only do I harvest honey and raise queens; I also am responsible for part of the future of the Russian honeybee and I take that responsibility very seriously. I truly believe the future of beekeeping is the Russian honeybee because I believe that the Russian honeybee is the answer to the Varroa mite. The rest is simple prudent beekeeping.

 

 

    A lot of the myths about Russian honeybees were created several years ago and they were allowed to perpetuate without tempering. Most of the negative issues have  been addressed and repaired with selective breeding; some rumors are still allowed to roam unfounded and mainly through ignorance.   Most important the Russian honeybee has changed a lot since the first few releases by the USDA-ARS at Baton Rouge.  The Russian honeybee of today is a different and much improved honeybee that has undergone a careful and guided genetic progression by the USDA-ARS Baton Rouge lab. This progression will continue with the efforts of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association and its members.

 

    Just like any other race of honeybees Russian bees will swarm. In truth they are relatively a little slower to build up in the spring than Italians when the influx of nectar and pollen stops; but this is a good thing! The queen will curtail her laying in periods of dearth; and, because of this they consume less of their stores than other races. Russian honeybees survive winters better, you get fewer deadouts.  Russian honeybees are very good bees to work with and since they are of a different race introduction methods should be either slightly lengthened or monitored, or both. Management methods are slightly different  as well; Russian honeybees will also change your mind about using chemicals for Varroa and tracheal mite treatments; and, yes they do exhibit some hygienic behavior. My webpage will address these concerns in detail at a later date.

 

 

 

The Truth About Commercial Mail Order Queens

   

    Most commercial queen producers raise queens by placement of a ripe 14-day-old queen cell in a mating NUC then removing the queen for shipment exactly 14 days later. This is done strictly to a 14 day schedule as it is the most efficient manner to raise and ship commercial queens.  Technically the queen is 28 days old; old enough to have mated and to have begun laying; but, there are pitfalls. The queen removed to be shipped may or may not have been mated and  little is known about her matriarchal abilities nor the gene pool where her ancestors swam. The Italian race of honeybees in the USA is not the same now as it was when the US closed its borders to importation of honeybees and semen after the outbreak of the Isle of Wright Disease at the turn of the last Century; the Italian gene pool is becoming shallower with less genetic diversity.  Even if that commercial queen  is not a drone layer she may be superceded;  or, she may become nothing more than a mediocre layer and her daughters marginal honey producers. And yes, sometimes she will knock your socks off with her laying ability; and, often a thought back to a year or two ago to that one marvelous queen will entice you to return to that commercial queen producer even though most of her sisters were average producing queens and perhaps a drone layer or two as well.

 

More About Those Russian Queens

    First of all throw away all those notions and rumors that you have heard about Russian honeybees. In the past most of the Russians that the Queen Industry sold were not mated with Russian drones so they were F-1 hybrids and some, I am very sad to say, were F-2 hybrids. F-2 Russian hybrids are not very good honeybees for many reasons; think about it: By definition they are 25% Russian and 75% whatever. Most of the temperament issues that continue to go around have been founded by F-2 and F-3 hybrids; that's 25% and 12½%  respectively, hardly Russian. Pure Russian queens are easy to work with; but like all honeybees they can and do have their bad days.  When pure Russian Honeybees are used everything that the bee has been bred for is inherent to the entire colony. Working with 100% Russians utilize the benefits of all the traits that have been bred naturally over 150 years and through the USDA-ARS at Baton Rouge's propagation and selective breeding program; these traits are being carried by all the members of the colony; these are really good bees!

 

   Last year and especially in the years before the Russian queens that I sold were daughters of pure USDA-ARS Russian breeder queens or were were daughters of instrumentally inseminated Russian Breeder queens from Glenn Apiaries in California. These Russian queens were indiscriminately open mated here in the Piedmont of North Carolina.  They were allowed to mate with any available drones.  Such queens are classified as F-1 hybrids. They were marked and they were good productive and gentle queens and my customers have really liked them. Never-the-less although the queens sold were genetically pure Russian their daughters, the workers, were F-1 hybrids, half Russian, they carried only half or 50% Russian genes except those few that were fathered by Russian drones. These F-1 hybrid queens were fighting off the Varroa mite with "two hands and a leg" tied behind their thoraxes.  Now my Russian queens are no longer fighting with their hands tied behind their backs.

 

    This year, 2008, my queen mating yard is surrounded by over 60 strategically placed full sized drone mother colonies arranged per the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association protocol. These hives carry frames of drone comb and foundation. This configuration, per protocol, will support about 1800 mating NUCS which is over three times the numbers required by my own modest operation.

 

The Russian Honeybee Breeders Association

   

    Certified Members of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association  all work together with the responsibility for the continued success of Dr. Tom Rinderer, his team at the USDA-ARS lab in Baton Rouge, and the original cooperators who made the program and the Russian honeybee possible. There is a very rigid protocol in place that must be followed in order for one to become and remain a producing productive member of the Russian Bee Breeders Association. Each member must carry at least two lines of Russian honeybees. Dr. Rinderer's gift to the world must be managed and improved through propagation and selective breeding in order to combat the Varroa mite and all the disease and harm that it vectors. Members of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association all promise to rigidly follow Dr. Rinderer's breeding protocol; and each participating member will be responsible for a least two genetic lines. The genetic pool that has been developed and refined with 18 separate breeding lines in three groups will continue to be improved using methods of statistical process control in order to improve genetic resistance to the Varroa mite, tracheal mite, and brood diseases as well as increase honey production, disease resistance and gentleness.  These genetic traits now define the Russian honey bee!

 

    The most important point that I want to make is that you really need to get off the chemical wagon and use Russian honeybees in your hives; and, they need to be pure Russian bees in order to obtain the maximum benefits from this race of honeybees. It really does not matter if you purchase Russian queens from Norton's Honey Farm or another source.  What's important is that you start using pure Russians!  Please visit http://www.russianbreeder.org  for additional information on the Russian Honeybee and for contacting any of the  Certified members/cooperators of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association, Inc.

 

 

The Russian Queens for Sale at Norton's Honey Farm

  

Genetics:

   

    All queens for sale are grafted daughters of released USDA-ARS  Russian Breeder Queens, the best in the US.  I am a Certified charter member of the Russian Bee Breeders Association and it is my responsibility to carryout the defined protocol that I have been assigned.  Russian Breeder Queens are purchased each year from the official USDA-ARS CRADA (Cooperative Research And Development Agreement) partner, Charlie Harper.  I use the same queens  that I sell for my own spring honey and sourwood honey production. In addition over 11 USDA-ARS Breeder Queens from over 11 different genetic lines are exclusively used for rearing Russian Drone Mothers that will produce drone brood in over 60 standard size hives having regular and drone foundation that ring my mating yard.  These drones will mate with the queens that you purchase.  They will also mate with the specific genetic lines that I am responsible for breeding and maintaining. You are going to get some very good genetics, pure Russian Queens that have mated with a diversified genetic variety of pure Russian drones.

 

Quality Assurance:

    Having started my career in the Aerospace Industry after serving in the US Navy  QUALITY was and continues to be paramount and an integral part of my thinking and my business.  I want to produce well mated pure Russian queens per USDA protocol. I want to produce queens that are readily accepted and less frequently superceded and because of the genetics that these honeybees carry they are also resistant to tracheal and varroa mites and they also exhibit hygienic behavior. In order to do this I believe that the queen must continue to mature in her own colony after she begins laying and that her brood be inspected as they cycle through metamorphosis and continue after emergence. There are two ideal times to pull queens. The first time is when she has given you a frame of at least 75% capped brood, and the second time is about a week after her daughters have hatched out of pupation.

    Quality Assurance procedures are inherent to our queen rearing operations. The selection criteria of all queens are performed in a systematic manner with established quality parameters resulting in inspection and rejection at all stages of development. From the purchase, receipt, and installation of breeder queens all the way to a satisfied customer a conscientious endeavor to maintain quality in our production is paramount to successful queen rearing.

    Steps are taken along the way from grafting to shipping to obtain these quality Russian queens.  We cull inferior queen cells; and we inspect and cull inferior queens throughout our production process. Each queen has a history from the day she is grafted until the day she is shipped or dies. We mark queens twice: by year - 2008 is red-  and by tier. Our Tier-3 queens are marked but once.

A Tier-1 Russian Queen

    Once we have a mated and laying queen we want to know if she will be suitable for our customers and our own standards. About two weeks after she has begun laying we will inspect her larvae and her capped brood for viability and pattern. An assessment of the first complete frame of brood ( ~75% capped brood) is inspected for brood pattern, health, and viability. If all looks assuring then this queen may be sold as a  Tier-1 Queen. This queen is at least 42 days old from egg " to ship",  that's 14 days older than a commercial queen.

   

A Tier-2 Russian Queen

     During the next two to three weeks this queen continues to lay and build up her colony.  She is now  at her peak of laying and pheromone production. Several days after the third week of laying, after her brood begins to hatch her daughters are inspected as well. We inspect for deformed wing virus, brood pattern, general health of the hive, and relative productivity. If things are not right she is culled! Only then after a long series of quality inspections will we sell that queen. That queen is now classified as a Tier-2 Queen. This queen is at least 56 days old from egg to "pull to ship",  that's 28 days older than a commercial queen; this is now a queen in her prime. Our Tier-2 queens are tested and proven queens.

NEW: A Tier-3 Russian Queen:  An exceptional proven and tested Russian Breeder Queen

        You have asked for it so we have added a third tier of Russian queens.  These queens are my very best production queens that I am able to sell to the public. They are grafted from the same released breeder lines as my other production queens and they have available the same drone mother colonies.  They have passed from Tier-1 and Tier-2 stages and  have undergone a minimum of another 6 weeks of evaluation. No longer are these queens in a NUC, they have been transferred frame by frame out of their mating NUCS into a full sized hive in the same location as their mating NUC. After about a week these hives are transferred to a remote outyard so that any drones produced in these hives will not affect mating outcomes. We do not want these drones to mate with our grafted queens from the same line. These Tier-3 Russian Queens are now  either in a full sized 10-Frame Standard Hive (9 5/8 Inches Deep) or a medium 10-Frame Illinois Hive (6 5/8 Inches Deep).  These colonies are now independent colonies and they are entered into our production management system and records are periodically taken for numbers of varroa as a percentage of infestation, number of frames of brood, number of frames of bees, brood pattern, honey production (during a honey flow),  temperament, and viability of young. Once again only the very best of these exceptional queens are offered as a Tier-3  Russian Breeder Queen and of course availability is limited. These queens are at least 98 days old and are offered either as caged queens shipped in a battery pack for $150.00 each or the queen and five frames of brood with her bees on frame transferred into your new hive on location for $275.00 each. For reasons of disease prevention you must bring with you all new wood and no other bee equipment; I will provide your bee suit, veil, hat, and gloves for that day. These Tier-3 queens are proven performers and they undergo the same evaluation process as our own designated breeding lines under test that we produce for the Association. These are our Best of the Best pure Russian queens that we have available to the public.

A Summary of our Operation

    All this takes extra manpower and additional production facilities which results in a much longer throughput than most queen rearing operations. Some folks will cage and ship as soon as a queen begins to lay. Some unfortunately pull and ship even sooner. We wait until our queens have established their brood patterns and their daughters emerge because we want to assure that our customers will receive a quality queen that will be an asset in their apiary. We put in a lot of extra time and effort but I believe that the result is a better quality queen and a very enthusiastic and satisfied customer. I am an initial member of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association, Inc. and my entire breeding operation is currently certified and is set up per the established protocol of the RHBA. You will make more money on these queens and you will also spend less money on replacements and chemicals in the long run. These are proven queens with a history and they carry the genetics that are desired by breeders, producers, and hobbyists.

I hope that I have opened your eyes to better beekeeping and better queens.

Marking scheme for 2008 is as follows:

 

            2008 Tier-1 Russians Queens are marked red/white.

            2008 Tier-2 Russians Queens are marked red/blue.

            2008 Tier-3 Russians Queens are marked red.

 

    We double mark our queens except for Tier-3 queens. The need for our customers to assure that the queen found six months down the road is the same queen that they installed is imperative! That is important, with the increase of Africanized honey bees in America; it is important to know that your queen has not been superseded; or, that the colony has not swarmed while you were on vacation and a new queen carrying unknown genetics in her spermatheca is now laying in your hive. You are also assured of the Tier level that you are buying.

 

Pricing for our Proven 42 Day Russian Queens (Tier-1): (capped worker brood)

 

    I pull and ship the same day because I strongly feel that a laying queen should have minimal interruption of her routine.  I do not bank queens, as it is not a prudent practice for many reasons; in fact, it can be quite harmful to the queens being banked.   Availability now is July 29^th or later for Tier-1 Russian Queens.

 

Quantity                                  Any Quantity

 Tier-1 Pure Russian Queens     $ 25.00      

 

All queens are marked. I do not ship unmarked queens unless specifically requested.

All shipments are FOB (shipper) Reidsville, NC.  2008 Tier-1 Russians are marked red/white.

1. Optional 8 gauge wire push-in introduction cages are available at $0.50 each.
2. You have choice of either 3-hole wooden cages or JZsBZs plastic cages.
3. You also can upgrade to a battery box with the queen(s) in JZsBZs cages with attendants for an additional $4.00.
4. Availability now is July 29^th or later for Tier-1 Russian Queens.

 

 

These queens described above are at least 98 days old and are offered either as caged queens shipped in a battery pack with attendants for $200.00 each or each queen and five frames of deeps or 8 frames of mediums of her brood with bees are transferred into your new hive on location for $300.00 each. Availability is limited in time from July 30, 2008 to August 29, 2008 and to available quantity on hand.