Beekeeping > Raising Queens

VHS Queens

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Bakersdozen:
As requested, this thread is to discuss VHS queens.  If you have experience, questions, or breed VHS Queens, feel free to post your results here. 

Gypsi:
I have VSH queens - The nucs I bought in 2012 came with VSH queens, and except for one California Italian queen who lived about a day before the hot bees threw her out of the hive, all of my purchased queens have been VSH.

My best survival rate is with BeeWeaver queens - They seem to be a bit tougher, they are from south of me so they handle the heat well, they make a small winter cluster, do a quick buildup in spring, make a lot of honey, glue the box shut, and retain their VSH properties for 3 or 4 generations.

My favorite method of checking for mites is stealing the drone brood and opening the capped cells to check for mites. I don't find them very often.

I treat a couple times a year with OAV. I was going in below the screened bottom board, but a trusted beekeeper advised me to treat above the screen for better effectiveness, so I do that now. I drilled a hole in the back of the hives and bought corks for them, modified my wand so I can just send that vapor in the back of the hive, with no bee traffic, and be above the screen.

I quit doing removals in May 2019 - the final one being the bees from my neighbor's house and queen was replaced with a Beeweaver queen.  They were a wild bunch robbing my apiary for years and probably bringing me mites.   So when I quit bringing home dirty bees and stopped the robbing life got manageable.

This year is my first to buy even queens since 2019. I haven't bought a nuc or any other hives since 2012

Jen:
Thanks Baker, and Hi Gypsy
    Over almost a 20 year span I have always had mites to some degree or other, maybe 3 or thousands. I agree with Gypsy on bringing home dirty bees, OR, other people in the neighborhood within a 2 mile radius Are Not taking care of their bees and the drone drift keeps everyone's apiary constantly mite challenged. About 3 hours south of us is commercial bee businesses galore. Three huge bee and queen breeding companies, and some other smaller operations. One of my bee friends runs about 800 hives, he drives hundreds of miles to let his bees pollinate the almond industry, makes good money. He uses one of those smaller operations to requeen every year. Last spring of 2022 was a treacherous spring with a warm spell in February and the greenery started to bloom. I knew were were going to be in trouble. Then the 2 month deep freeze killed all the blooms and many of us had to keep feeding the bees all summer and all of last winter.
    For some reason, many queens in upper northern Calif bit the dust. So I decided to change out my queens and try something new. I ordered 4 queens, $25 ea, from the company my friend uses.
    Let me tell ya, I haven't had mites since I installed those queen early last summer. I'm just astounded! but I keep doing OA, one fog about every 6 weeks-ish just to keep track. These queens must be VHS. I'm tickled pink ~

The15thMember:

--- Quote from: Jen on May 15, 2023, 12:48:47 pm ---    Let me tell ya, I haven't had mites since I installed those queen early last summer. I'm just astounded! but I keep doing OA, one fog about every 6 weeks-ish just to keep track. These queens must be VHS. I'm tickled pink ~

--- End quote ---
So are you vaping them and seeing not a single mite now?  Or are you just seeing a huge reduction in your drop counts?

Jen:
I vap with a sticky board, have been all me bee years. Been vaping/stickboard since last summer, absolutely no mite drop to date.

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