Video on how to Re-queen a Hive by Randy Oliver of Scientific Beekeeping
https://www.ohbees.com/pages/tutorials/#introduce-new-queen
ABOUT THE QUEENS:
OHB Carniolan Queens
Carniolans are known for their winter hardiness, rapid spring buildup, and exceptional honey production. They show excellent resistance to tracheal mites and are great comb builders. OHB has several sources for instrumentally inseminated breeder queens. The queens we produce from these breeders are open-mated with all of our stock for genetic diversity and hybrid vigor.
- OHB queens are Certified free from Africanized Genetics
- OHB is Certified free from Small Hive Beetle
Carniolan traits:
- A good choice for colder climates
- More likely to forage on cool, wet days than other bees
- Quick to brood up when nectar is available
- Excellent honey producers
OHB Hygenic Italian Queens
Italian queens form the backbone of OHB. We choose our breeder queens based on the hive’s performance in honey production, gentleness, brood-rearing viability, and overall ability to overwinter healthy and heavy. In addition, OHB has worked with the “Tech Transfer Team,” developed by world-renowned entomologist Marla Spivak, since before its official launch in an effort to identify and maintain desirable traits in our current stock. We’ve infused the “Minnesota Hygienic” and the “VSH” traits into our Italian stock, in an effort to enhance disease and mite resistance or tolerance.
- OHB queens are Certified free from Africanized Genetics
- OHB is Certified free from Small Hive Beetle
Italian traits:
- Gentle and easy to manage (a good “beginner bee”)
- Prolific brood producers
- Highly hygienic
- Good comb builders
- Excellent foragers
- Excellent honey producers
Oliverez Italian Queens from Northern California
They’ve infused the “Minnesota Hygienic” and the “VSH” traits into our Italian stock, in an effort to enhance disease and mite resistance or tolerance.
Italian Queens form the backbone of Oliverez Honey Bee (OHB). They choose their breeder queens based on the hive’s performance in honey production, gentleness, brood-rearing viability, and overall ability to overwinter healthy and heavy. In addition, OHB has worked with the “Tech Transfer Team,” developed by world-renowned entomologist Marla Spivak, since before its official launch in an effort to identify and maintain desirable traits in our current stock. They’ve infused the “Minnesota Hygienic” and the “VSH” traits into our Italian stock, in an effort to enhance disease and mite resistance or tolerance.
Italian traits:
- Gentle and easy to manage (a good “beginner bee”)
- Prolific brood producers
- Highly hygienic
- Good comb builders
- Excellent foragers
- Excellent honey producers
Randy Oliver Golden West Queens
Randy Oliver and his sons Eric and Ian run the successful migratory beekeeping operation Golden West Bees in the California foothills, taking their hives to almond pollination each year, and then selling a thousand nucs each spring. This is all without using any synthetic miticides since the year 2001.
While monitoring their hives for mite infestation in 2017, they discovered a colony that maintained mite counts of zero, without any treatments. Sensing an opportunity to free their bees from the plague of varroa, Randy decided to begin a serious selective breeding program, starting with daughters grafted from that “Queen Zero.”
Each year they split and requeen all their 1500 hives, solely with daughters of queens that headed the previous season’s most mite-resistant colonies.
Starting with only a single resistant colony out of 1500, over the years they’ve slowly increased the percentage of their hives that exhibit complete or partial mite resistance. In the first years, heritability was frustratingly low, but by the 2023 season, in some yards over half their colonies maintained infestation rates below 2% over the entire course of the season, right in the middle of crowded apiaries with plenty of mite drift – without the application of any miticides.
The Olivers don’t select for “looks” and use their queens’ variation in color patterns as an indicator that they are maintaining enough genetic diversity in their stock. But they do select for performance.
They breed only from queens whose colonies are very gentle and healthy, exhibited above average honey production, and proved strong for almond pollination.
We are now proud to announce that Randy and Olivarez Honey Bees are collaborating to produce production queens for sale. OHB has an isolated mating yard, which will allow the Olivers to better control their drone pool. This is a win-win for both of us, allowing OHB to sell open-mated Oliver queens mated to Oliver drones, while allowing the Olivers to focus upon their successful selective breeding program — which involves performing thousands of mite washes throughout the year.
Keep in mind that there’s no such thing as a mite-resistant queen – it’s the workers produced by the queen and the drones that she mated with that confer resistance. That said, the Olivers want to make clear that they have not yet “fixed” the genetics for mite resistance into their bloodlines, so they do not yet make any claim that their stock is “mite resistant.” But it looks like you’ve currently got about a 50% chance that any of their queens might produce a resistant colony – a figure that we expect to improve each year. Keep in mind that even their “partially-resistant” colonies require fewer treatments.
The Olivers have put a heckuva lot of work over the years into their selective breeding program, and OHB is very impressed by their progress. By producing and selling their queens, we hope to support them in their efforts to free us all from the scourge of varroa!
To learn more about Randy and the development of the Golden West Queen, visit ScientificBeekeeping.com
OHB Saskatraz Queens
Saskatraz hybrids are produced in Northern California (Orland area) exclusively by Olivarez Honey Bees using Saskatraz breeder queens constructed in Saskatchewan, Canada by Meadow Ridge Enterprises (Breeder and CEO, Albert J. Robertson). A detailed review of the Saskatraz project (established 2005) including breeding methods, published research articles ,power point presentations and information on individual breeding families, including Saskatraz hybrids can be found at www.saskatraz.com.
Saskatraz queens are only available from Olivarez Honey Bees or authorized distributors throughout the US.
Saskatraz breeder queens are selected for honey production, wintering ability, temperament, tracheal mite resistance, varroa tolerance / resistance and brood diseases. The Saskatraz breeding program uses recurrent natural selection to select for varroa tolerance in productive colonies with good economic traits. We have found varroa tolerance is not a stable trait, with considerable variability in the daughters of selected breeder queen’s. In the last 3 or 4 years we have crossed high VSH lines with our naturally selected colonies to try and increase stability of the varroa tolerant trait. This looks to be promising and new lines are currently being evaluated. However, we have also noted that treatment with some synthetic miticides, although initially effective in lowering phoretic varroa infestations, may negatively affect the colonies ability to cope with subsequent mite infestations. Some miticide treatments may also result in increased virus infections, particularly in varroa susceptible phenotypes. (Unpublished data)
Saskatraz hybrids are being produced in Northern California using virgin queens from diverse families of Saskatraz breeder queens and open mating them with unrelated drone populations in the Orland area. These queens produce colonies with genetically diverse workers. This diversity results in increased vigor, and analyses of hybrid queens in Canada is showing fast spring build up and increases in honey production. Attention to fall stores for wintering and in the spring is necessary.
Use of Saskatraz hybrid stock in your apiaries should provide drone populations which will increase the frequency of alleles for honey production and varroa tolerance, as well as other economic traits. This is because drones from the hybrids carry the genetics of their mother, the breeder queen.
- OHB queens are Certified free from Africanized Genetics
- OHB is Certified free from Small Hive Beetle
Saskatraz breeder queen traits:
- Excellent honey production
- Good wintering ability
- Selected for increased varroa tolerance and resistance to brood diseases
- Show increased hygienic behavior