Blog

Updated Virgin Queen Introduction Protocol

The Stevens Method of virgin queen introduction was born out of failures to introduce freshly inseminated queens that were 10 days old. This method was developed in the spring of 2015 after learning to inseminate queen honey bees from Sue Cobey in 2014. The bees had lovingly cared for my prized breeder queens to be in their cages prior to insemination, but to my frustration routinely decided to murder them once they were released from the protection of their queen cage. Each

Introducing freshly instrumentally inseminated breeder queens

This year we started offering untested, or not yet laying II'd VSH breeder queens. These are VSH daughter queens that are II'd to a blend...

Introducing virgin queens

I have been exclusively using virgin queens in my operation, since started producing them years ago. I like using virgins as opposed to...

To treat or not to treat, that is the question

This is a very hot topic among beekeepers, and has sparked countless debates. So why not write a few thoughts about it? A short scan of...