Our "Connecticut Carniolan" queens are grafted from proven, over-wintered instrumentally inseminated New World Carniolan breeder stock and open mated in our mating yards with drones selected from our best overwintered honey production hives. These drone mother colonies are proven honey producers, chalkbrood and disease resistant, and survive harsh New England winters.

 

 

The ultimate goal of our breeding program is to produce stock that performs well in Northern climates. By breeding from our best colonies year after year, our bees will show annual improvement that increases their ability to handle the constantly changing face of beekeeping today.

 

An essential part of our business is raising queens and nucleus colonies during the summer months.  We feel that the Carniolan strain of the European honey bee is best suited for our needs because of its winter hardiness, hygienic behavior, gentle disposition, overall fecundity, and large honey crops. 

 

 

These overwintered queens in nucleus colonies are the backbone of our apiaries, providing the needed stability for sustainable beekeeping.

 

 

 

 

 

 Treatment Disclosure :

We have never used synthetic miticides, which are known to build up in brood combs, in our hives.  We monitor varroa levels in each outyard and treat only when mite levels exceed the economic threshold of 3 percent infestation.  We have only used formic acid and thymol which are considered soft "organic" treatments to reduce mite levels in our honey production colonies.  We do not treat our hives prophylactically each year with antibiotics for the control of American Foulbrood and Nosema.  Foulbrood has not been a problem in our colonies due to the hygienic nature of our bees.  We will be monitoring each outyard for Nosema this year and will only treat if spore levels indicate a severe infection.

We have been running our breeder colonies, nucs, and mating nucs untreated.  However, we will be monitoring mite and nosema infections levels in these colonies this year and treating only when necessary.