Stevens Bee Co

I was taught instrumental insemination by Sue Cobey in the summer of 2014. Prior to learning "II" we'd purchased II'd breeding stock exclusively from outside sources to bring in high concentrations of resistant genes and lay the foundation for our bees. With superb instruction from Sue, we've had great success with our initial practice of II. Many of our II'd queens have outperformed their open mated sisters, likely because of drone selection and sound insemination procedure

Varroa Sensitive Hygiene is a fascinating genetic trait that allows worker bees to detect female mites that are reproducing beneath a capped cell. It's likely the bees detect reproductive mites by smell. The worker bees uncap and remove a large percentage of pupae which were infested with reproductive mites, and throw them outside the hive. The female mite must then find another cell to occupy, and start over. The life cycle of the mite is disrupted by these natural resistanc

Sustainable beekeeping has become a topic of discussion in recent years, and rightfully so. Beekeeping used to be much easier and worry free, but times and our environment have drastically changed. Now we have plenty to worry about; mites, small hive beetles, pesticide exposure, and starvation from reduced forage. These worries motivate us to examine what makes a beekeeping operation sustainable. After a quick google search, I determined the definition of sustainable to be