Our breeding is based on trait selection rather than attempting to breed a specific race. We are focused on selecting for:
- Survival of the fittest: early pollen gathering and build up. We take pride in grafting from colonies that are treatment free and show mite resistance.
- Honey Production: our highest yielding colonies are brought to our mating yard.
- Gentleness: any aggressive, running on comb, intense robbing traits are not tolerated. Queens from aggressive hives are culled to ensure that all of our hives are gentle.
We select our best performing colonies from our bee yards when breeding our bees. Colony performance is based on continuously collected data from our beekeepers. Each yard contains at least 45 colonies at all times. Each spring the very best from these yards are chosen to graft from. Runner-up colonies are used to flood the area with drones. Any poor-performing colonies are removed and replaced with colonies from our yards.
Each year we purchase queens from various sources which we install at a test apiary for over wintering and evaluation. Those that show promise are brought to an out yard, where eventually they may be selected to our breeding yards. We also source some nucs from neighbouring beekeepers whose practices we respect.