In this video, you’ll see the fall harvest of surplus honey from USDA Russian bees (RHBA – Primorsky Russia’s Far East honeybees). Russian bees are a strain of European dark bee Apis mellifera mellifera and they have spent over 100 years in close proximity to Asian honeybee (Apis cerana) which enabled them to naturally adapt to Asian varroa mite much earlier than any other European honeybee

Russian bees are very frugal, they need fewer winter resources & they overwinter successfully on fewer honey frames than the common bees with Italian genetics. And yet, Russian bees are good honey producers and in my remote FB Maine apiary I keep them treatment free and I leave them with sufficient resources of their own honey & I never sugar-feed them or exchange their honey for sugar.     

In the video, I do not winterize the hive yet – only put the mouse guard on. I winterize a bit later after the second frost. To winterize, I place a cut-off piece of a 100% wool army blanket over the bee nest, making sure the ~1/3″ gap under the divider board remains open. On top of the wool blanket I place a burlap pillowcase filled with raw sheep wool for warmth and moisture control