Yeah introducing Russians to normal Italian hives with foragers is a 5+ day process. With a full sized hive with foragers wait 3 days before you even think about putting the queen cage in the hive. 3 days after pinching queen come back & shake off every frame, cut down queen cells & put caged russian queen in the hive with cork covering the candy, come back in 2 days, shake off every frame again & cut down queen cells, remove the cork covering the candy, & put back in the hive. It'll take them ~3 days to eat through the candy & release her and by then they'll have been queenless for 8 days, she'll have been in the hive ~5 days, & acceptance is near 100%. I also noticed the hardness of the candy can vary significantly depending on where you get your queens (not just with Russians just caged queens in general) & that can make a difference. I had 2 Stephen Coy russians and it took small nucs only 1 day to eat through the candy & release them & that woulda been a guaranteed failure had I tried to introduce them the normal way to full sized hives.
good to see you up and moving around brother glad god was on your side and love the video!
It kicked my butt the first couple weeks. But seeing all the improvements now has me convinced I'll be better than before.
Thanks brother😁💪😁
Yeah introducing Russians to normal Italian hives with foragers is a 5+ day process. With a full sized hive with foragers wait 3 days before you even think about putting the queen cage in the hive. 3 days after pinching queen come back & shake off every frame, cut down queen cells & put caged russian queen in the hive with cork covering the candy, come back in 2 days, shake off every frame again & cut down queen cells, remove the cork covering the candy, & put back in the hive. It'll take them ~3 days to eat through the candy & release her and by then they'll have been queenless for 8 days, she'll have been in the hive ~5 days, & acceptance is near 100%. I also noticed the hardness of the candy can vary significantly depending on where you get your queens (not just with Russians just caged queens in general) & that can make a difference. I had 2 Stephen Coy russians and it took small nucs only 1 day to eat through the candy & release them & that woulda been a guaranteed failure had I tried to introduce them the normal way to full sized hives.
O.k. I'm glad you mention the way you did it too because I didn't really like the way I came up with, but it did work.