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| Texan Bees | |||
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History and Background
of the Texan Bees |
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These are our own blend of mite resistant hygienic bees derived from a variety of
"survivor stock" mixed with VSH lines imported from some of the top queen breeders
around the country that are outside of Africanized bee territory. This project started
in 2017 with local bees from removals that were not overly aggressive and had survived
on their own for a long period without mite treatment. Meaning, when a colony was removed
from a structure that was strong and in good condition and had very low mite numbers when
checked, they were placed in a specific holding yard and monitored for several months.
The best of these hives (that were not Africanized or overly aggressive) were checked
again for multiple traits. The ones that remained strong and kept low mite numbers
without treatments were selected for grafting. When the resulting virgin queens are
placed in yards for mating, these yards are surrounded with gentle VSH hives of Italian,
Carniolan and Pol-Line genetics with strong drone populations. Over the last several years these lines have shown promising results. Not only in our own yards, but also from the feedback we receive from customers that have been using these lines for several years. In the beginning, these "Texans", or "The Bee Place Bees" as our helpers like to call them, tended to be a little on the "spicy" side. After many years of mixing with more and more gentle bees from VSH lines we are finding they are not as spicy and are still maintaining the low mite numbers with little treatment. This is good news for those of us that enjoy working bees without full protective gear. We keep our veils handy because we occasionally get into a "grumpy" hive and would rather be safe than sorry, but we are finding less and less as we progress with these lines. They are honey bees and pretty much all honey bees have mites, but they are learning to co-exist and it appears they are building resistances to the issues caused by the mites. With that said, we recommend checking for mites and treating as needed. That is what we do and will continue to do until the bees are able to completely overcome the problems caused by mites. There is more good news on the horizon... This year (2024) we are bringing in some additional genetics that have proven to be very mite resistant in northern California and also very gentle. Our goal is to include these genes into our local pools and see how the do in our south Texas ecosystems. Time will tell. |
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Types of Bees
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Italian Bees
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Pol-Line Bees
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Texan Bees
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