08/27/2026
Some colonies are just nasty. Not defensive because of weather, not because we opened them at the wrong time—just consistently aggressive bees that make every inspection harder and more dangerous than it needs to be.
Today, we’re requeening one of those colonies with one of our instrumentally inseminated VSH queens.
This isn’t about simply replacing a queen. The queen is the genetic foundation of the colony, and her genetics influence the temperament, productivity, brood pattern, hygienic behavior, and overall performance of the next generation of workers.
When a colony consistently demonstrates excessive defensiveness, allowing that genetics to continue reproducing can create problems for the beekeeper, neighbors, employees, customers, and anyone else who may have to work around the apiary.
Our goal is to replace those genetics with something better.
This II VSH queen comes from carefully selected stock with an emphasis on Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH), strong colony performance, brood quality, and manageable temperament. Instrumental insemination allows us to control the genetics going into the queen rather than leaving mating entirely to chance.
And this is important: you don’t put a new queen in a nasty colony and expect the entire colony to become gentle overnight. The existing adult workers were produced by the previous queen and will remain in the hive until they naturally age out. As the new queen’s daughters emerge and become the workforce, we can begin evaluating the change in temperament.
That is why requeening is a management decision—not a quick fix.
We breed for bees that perform, bees that can defend themselves when necessary, and bees that we can actually work with.
Better genetics. Better management. Better bees.
