About Italian and Carniolan bees: Generalizing about bee
characteristics is to risk being proven wrong by the exception, but our
experience with these two wonderful races is as follows. We find the
Italian bee to be great for suburban beekeeping because of its gentle
characteristics combined with good honey productivity. The Carniolan
bee is thought to do well in colder, more mountainous climates. But, in
our experience, the Carniolan tends to be quicker to defend its hive, so
is perhaps less well suited to backyard beekeeping where you have close
neighbors. Carniolans also tend to maintain a smaller cluster during the
winter, and are late to build up brood in the spring. However, the
increase is quick when it happens, which can lead to unexpected
swarming early in the season.
Ruhl Bee Supply
Package Bees, Nucleus Hives, Queens
2010 Nucleus Hives
We expect to have Nucleus hives available starting in the second half of
April through May. Nucleus hives are an excellent alternative if you have
missed the Package Bee window.
As of May 20th, 2010, we have finished distributing Nucleus Hives for
the Spring 2010 season.
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We are now taking orders for 2010 queens.
Weekly queen arrivals begin first week of April, 2010.
We supply outstanding Italian queens (Apis mellifera ligustica) and New
World Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica) on a weekly basis. See below for
comments about these races. ORDER HERE!
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2010 Queens: