VP Queen Bees 2012

Inseminated Breeder Queens Custom-made breeder queens from our lines or combinations, for your queen production program.

Cells|Virgins|Open-Mated Breeders Stock will be selected for mite tolerance, VSH expression, honey production, over-wintering ability, queen fecundity, comb building, hygienic behavior, and gentleness out of the VP Allegro or VP Spartan line.

VP Allegro queens build up quickly in the Spring and can be split sooner. They rear strong brood into the Fall.

VP Spartan queens build up more slowly, but produce enormous brood nests and worker populations before the honey flow. They slow up when the nectar/pollen slows and make a conservative Fall brood nest.

Our clients like both lines equally. How To Order

Rationale

We aim through selection and honey bee breeding, to continue to meet our goals producing queens that head productive, thrifty colonies that can be managed without the use of chemicals. We've been working toward this goal for the last 13 years. We feel that the queens we breed and use to head our honey production colonies, would be ones you'd also want to use in your colonies.

Evaluating untested bee stock for desirable breeders is a "numbers game". The larger a sample of stock that can be evaluated and tested, the greater the chance of finding queens/colonies that show desirable traits. We've chosen to leverage an evaluation/testing strategy where we use Instrumental Insemination to control matings, making carefully calculated crosses with proven lines, while testing the outcome of experimental crosses. This results in the maintenance of our breeding population and assures new genetic potential.

We collaborate with bee breeders throughout the U.S.A. and by testing their stocks, and then using the most suitable in carefully planned crosses, we're realizing great results for Varroa tolerance, honey production and overall hardiness. We also provide breeding stock to other breeders and queen producers. This collaboration moves us collectively forward toward our goal to produce quality queens for today's beekeeper.

It Is Possible!

Regional bee breeder associations are organizing and breeding; more skill and care is being used in rearing local, high-quality queen bees selected for suitability for IPM programs or even non-treatment management. Conscientious beekeepers are asking this simple question: "Why can't I have good bees that survive and produce honey without spending all my time treating them?" The bee breeders/queen producers concentrating on locally adapted, tolerant queen lines are answering simply: one MAY keep bees without miticides and antibiotics by keeping healthy bees bred to be hardy, pathogen tolerant and adapted to the local habitat. This breeding takes time and patience, but is achievable!

Breeding Design

Currently, our breeding program incorporates many of the fundamentals of the classic closed population breeding design for Honey Bees (Page-Laidlaw). Instrumental Insemination is our method to cross our breeder queens: the closed population model depends on controlled matings to function properly. Closed population bee breeding allows for steady improvement toward the ideal, without risking the perils that inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity pose to Honey Bees. Pooling semen (an integral part of the Paige-Laidlaw model) to get an even mix of the drones to all the breeder queens, is difficult. We're working on ways to facilitate our semen pooling technique. We also use several other techniques to deliver a diverse blend from our breeding drone population. Only after a breeder queen is evaluated positively, do we graft from her.

VSH Expression

What is VSH?

We have a unique breeding population based on VSH(SMR) from several sources. We received some of the first VSH stock from the USDA @ Baton Rouge. VSH and Varroa mite reproduction information. Scroll down for general VSH background and information.

VSH Breeders are collaborating! Since we know that breeding is a "numbers game" why not work with others? Check out the VSHBreeders.org bee breeding forum.

We're continually testing others' survivor bees for potential too. Basically, we test queens from many different breeders. If they are productive, survive two Winters, build up well during our short, intense Spring and still manage to remain thrifty for the rest of our season, we consider them as candidates. We do not treat any of our colonies. If they survive and are desirable, we incorporate them into our population.

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