How we select breeder queens

how we select breeder queens

Locally Adapted
Productive and Gentle
Hygienic Treatment-Free Survivors

Locally Adapted

Productive and Gentle

Hygienic Treatment-Free Survivors

"There is no biological reason to expect bees bred for early queen production in subtropical areas to perform well during northern winters (or vice versa). And there is plenty of evidence that locally-adapted breeds fare better on the local flora, and deal better with local pathogens." - Randy Oliver

Our bees live here -- year round. Since 2017, the core of our stock has wintered here in the Ridge and Valley Appalachians (EPA ecoregion 67), tucked between the generally higher, more rugged Allegheny Mountains to the west and Blue Ridge Mountains to the east. Forests cover about 50% of the land, and there is great diversity of aquatic habitats. Just south of the 40th parallel north, we are barely far enough south to overwinter bees outdoors, according to the common wisdom of a century ago.

Cities in our ecoregion include Harrisburg, Carlisle, Chambersburg, Altoona and State College, PA to the north; Winchester, Front Royal and Harrisonburg, VA to the south; and many in between, from Hagerstown to Cumberland, MD, and Martinsburg, Charles Town and Romney, WV.

We need productive bees that love to create surplus honey and brood. Otherwise, our sister company, Sleepy Creek Honey, would become an expensive beekeeping hobby. To that end, we select breeder queens from colonies with exceptional overwintering ability and strong spring build-up. If a hive is unusually defensive, that queen does not make the grade.

High Quality

We do not sell any mated queens younger than 21 days old. Research shows that giving a queen at least 21 days to mature leads to increased introduction success, early survival and satisfactory performance. Using an underage queen is just asking for trouble.

Treatment-Free Survivors

We are in the midst of a 5-to-10-year project to develop mite-resistant bees. We began in 2023 by augmenting our locally-adapted stock with Carniolan breeder queens from Latshaw Apiaries, a renowned breeder of healthy, treatment-free honey bees.

We withhold chemical treatments for varroa mites from a substantial portion of the apiary -- about 130 colonies in 2025-26. Only if a treatment-free colony overwinters well and builds up quickly in the spring will the queen be considered for the breeding pool.

Hygienic

Some colonies are (way) better than others at detecting and dealing with unhealthy and/or parasitized brood. In particular, bees expressing the Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) trait readily uncap and remove mite-infested brood.

A score of 4 on the Harbo assay scale of 0-4 means that the colony fully expresses the VSH trait. A Harbo score of just 2 "produces an acceptable level of resistance to varroa, enough to control mite populations." (p.19 of linked handbook)

To be included in our breeding pool, a queen's colony must score 3 or 4 on the Harbo assay.