James Lee's Bees

07/18/2024

Just when you think you've caught up. You decide to start a new yard.

Side effect of having living bees I guess!?

07/07/2024

I have 30 VSH Virgins available for overnight shipping. The queens are $20 ea. These queens are high scoring VSH. The mother is an F1 daughter originating from John Harbos stock, mated in my apiaries, scored 4 on the Harbo Assay and successfully overwintered in Michigan.

https://sbgmi.org/product/nqi-romulus-pickup-james-lees-bees

06/23/2024

The take was 45/45 when first inspected. 43/45 completed capping and one was a nubber that I culled.

Same builder as last Ryan Williamson!

We'll call this 42/45. Now if I can NOT MURDER THEM...we'll be good!

06/21/2024

Flapping stacks of flapjacks batman!

Guess what the mite count was!?

06/14/2024

After two cell starters were murdered by rogue virgins I was remiss to bother another round. But, I had some queen less colonies laying around the yard, patched them together and built a 5/5 cell starter/finisher from them.

The result was fantastic. I'm happy with the take, and looking forward to what this "mini" builder will do with round two now that more brood is emerging!

06/02/2024

2022, Sustainable Beekeepers Guild of Michigan (Group) group queen orders from Stevens Bee Company yielded 5 F1s that all scored 3 or 4 on the Harbo scale after open mating here in Michigan.

2 of them are breeders in my apiaries. They lay sheets of brood, did not need to be fed for winter, and have good calm temperament. These would be considered F2 from Cory's breeders. But, they are F1 from a Michigan mated and confirmed high scoring VSH queen.

You can get you some in the queen portal!

Http://www.sbgmi.org/Queenportal

05/27/2024

I had 22 VSH queens from a high scoring mother thanks to Stevens Bee Company stock in 2022. She's calm and lays sheets of brood. Lovely gal. I was going to sell them, but the mating yard has been on fire this year.

Can't pass up a good thing. Now I have like 40 queens out for mating.

This is out of hand.

05/26/2024

Can you perform a Harbo Assay on a colony in the spring and determine its VSH score?

My answer is yes. Though ideally having as much mite pressure as possible to ascertain the full capacity of a colony's ability to suppress mite reproduction will give you MORE mites to evaluate - it is not a deal breaker.

Based on my limited experience and digestion of research/literature on the topic these are some things I consider:

1. You must have not treated the colony with acaricides the previous fall. If you have treated with acaricides in the late winter or early spring - forget about it. If you did perform fall treatments - there will not have been sufficient reproductive cycles for the varroa mites. (You can use something like Freeze Killed Brood, UbeeO, or pin-kill test to determine hygienic functioning, but these are not reliable tests for identifying suppression of mite reproduction).

2. The colony needs to be of moderate size, making enough brood for mite reproduction to occur. Smaller colonies will still have mite pressure, but it may be challenging. In these instances I would not feel comfortable making breeding decisions unless the mites that I am finding are 100% non-reproductive. Additionally, sample more than one side of the frame, or multiple frames if you are able.

3. If the mites (more than 1) you are finding are in fact 100% non-reproductive, the verdict is sound. In testing last years colonies in Spring, Fall, and correlating alcohol washes there were no changes in scoring, except 1, and it went from 4 to 3, which Dr. John Harbo states is sufficient for not requiring chemical treatments.

(Picture: 2023 queen open mated in my mating yard. After 37 samples I was able to find the first mite, and it was non-reproductive. After 160 samples, we found 3 non-reproductive mites, no mite-families).

05/22/2024

Yesterday sure came with a lot of challenges - but I usually do not let them discourage me - as much as they are in fact discouraging.

Perseverance is a character trait I find valuable - and is inherently the backbone of my work ethic. I consider myself a "despite the odds" kind of person. One of the surest ways to get me to do something is to tell me, "you can't."

The weeds tell me I can't garden this little patch that has grown my family vegetables for half a century.

The breeder queen I wanted to use yesterday said I can't have larva old enough to use for grafting.

The weather told me I can't finish the chores in this apiary because it is too hot.

All in a days work. It was a sunup to midnight kind of day, but at the end of it all, If I didn't sweat, it was too easy - and I'm not one of those folks that strive for easy.

Ps. This batch of queens are F2, that's second generation removed from an Steven's Bee Co. breeder queen. I got her in 2022, mated her openly and locally to my mating yard. I scored her on the Harbo scale in 2023 (Spring & Fall) and she is 100% VSH/Mite-Resistant alleles. Her daughter's will create drones that convey those alleles to a high degree/100% and workers with at least 75%.

Many say I can't have treatment-free bees - and with most things people tell me I can't - guess again!

You can get these queens at http://www.sbgmi.org/queenportal

05/18/2024

Grateful for so many options to breed for host resistance in our honey bees. I introduced several breeder queens from the USDA-ARS Baton Rouge Honey Bee Lab's Pol-Line Breeding program over the last few days.

These Queen bees laugh at mites and will produce daughters that will laugh at mites too. Stay tuned, the https://sbgmi.org/queenportal will be offering these queens soon!

05/06/2024

A friendly wave...for now.

04/30/2024

Queens are on track. The first batch went to spring nucs!

Next batch will be available in the coming week.

These VIRGIN queens came from an F1 (raised from inseminated stock via John Harbo) mother that scored 4 on the Harbo scale. That F1 is open mated in my mating yard with other Michigan selected stock in the vicinity. This makes her technically a 100% VSH queen, more than capable of fighting the mites.

I do not use treatment for mites on my breeding stocks or daughters so they can be vetted for mite resistance.

These queens will be marked green 🍏 and available through the SBGMI website via the Northern Queen initiative!

www.sbgmi.org
www.fightingthemites.com

$30ea.

$35 shipping overnight if you can't pickup local in Romulus.

04/20/2024

Guess what flooded? Guess who didn't bring boots? Guess who moved the bees any way?!!

04/17/2024

Bees are in the trees...usually means a swarm has happened. However, we have an early spring and the trees are plantations in the sky ...

04/14/2024

Bought some magic boxes this year..

04/12/2024

https://youtu.be/XOTFHP0Mv6w?si=TUlSMYBX8hZ3sOo3

In this video I pay a visit to one of my outyards that I call a quarantine yard. This yard is where I bring swarms and stock of unknown origin to spend a yea...

04/10/2024

Time to get going on the airport yard.

04/06/2024

I have a few more spring nucs left.
No deposit, 5 frame mediums, $200 at pickup in Romulus, MI. Expect to be ready by June 1st, with 2024 VSH mite-resistant queen stock.

Fill out the form below to be placed on the waiting list.

This is the wait list for first available nucs in Spring 2024. Pickup location is Romulus, MI. Individuals will be called in order of signup as nucs become available. THERE IS NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED. First on the list will get called first as available. ...or we can invoice you for use of CC. This year...

04/02/2024

Ever hear worker bees make tooting/piping noises? Research suggests that workers make a noise when rubbing their wings together when perched on another worker bee and that this is correlated with pre-swarm activity.

I hear it often, and in this short, it is March in the North, and definitely not swarming...

03/26/2024

https://youtu.be/pVV6a_TKLyA?si=gP8ssqOdT-Q-F65R

Back from a long video hiatus with some thoughts on local adaptation in honey bees. The temperatures were cold and the bees didn't give a rippity rip - they ...

03/24/2024

Bees in the observation hive have been brooding up in earnest since mid February. Spotted the queen again today. This observation hive is insulated a bit and in the garage, about 10F warmer than outside.

03/22/2024

It was 37F yesterday. No feed on these bees for quite some time. Warm weather was providing plenty of pollen and nectar. The cells in this "brace" comb were wet!

03/21/2024

It has been warm and cold and warm and cold again. Here is a good reason for Northern beeks to refrain from patties, feed, and box reversals...

Dead drones and dead drone pupa. Bees know what they're doing. It may not be good for them to have cyclical weather this early in the season, but they have it handled.

03/13/2024

Made some improvements to the wax processing step. Watched a video from Bruce Jenne and put the dirty and unprocessed wax in paint strainers directly into a crock pot full of water. Normally I filter it a few times through a strainer and paper towel and that process takes all day sometimes.

Once done in the pot and cooled, just one round it looks pretty good. The final pour through the grease filter was a beautiful finishing touch!

03/09/2024

Hope to see some of my friends in the thumb area Tuesday the 19th!!

03/03/2024

https://youtube.com/shorts/rpXixeLH1LE?si=p0S1NmbKuaLV6jE1

02/21/2024

https://youtube.com/shorts/YlFoFI3HKwc?si=3j_RVtBZlTFjxMrj