I lost my 2 hives of Italians last year. I am buying more Italians and am also trying a hive of Russians. I heard the Russians are ornery but good producers, does anyone have experience with them? Are they prone to robbing - I had a problem with the Italians cleaning out the honey in each others hives last year, as well as superseding the Queens - I went through 5 Queens for 2 hives!?

I'll have to check with my husband but I think ours are Russians. If they are then they can be ornery at times but mostly pretty well behaved. Of course, some of them have probably bred with the wild bees that were here before we got the first hives.
We gave some to one of my brothers last year and his won't let anyone near the hive. I think in his case it's where he smokes they don't like the way he smells because they weren't like that here.
We've not had a problem with robbing but that could be due to plenty of forage for them in this area.