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  • From: John Rintoul <beecd AT icloud.com>
  • To: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [ocba] VSH Bee Experience/Experiment
  • Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:15:59 -0400

For those who might be interested in my ongoing experience with VSH bees.

Today I did a second sugar shake on my weaker hive. The first sugar shake, done over 3 weeks ago, netted 5 mites. Today's shake netted only 2. The number is certainly going in an encouraging direction.

This hive is weak because they got a later than expected start when I had to requeen the third week of June. When I requeened in June, I marked the queen since I still have difficulty spotting royalty. I thought marking would help. It didn't. Today is the first time that I've seen her since she assumed reproductive responsibilities in the hive. I was beginning to wonder whether she had been superseded, but thankfully she appears to be alive and well. So all of the bees in the colony come from VSH lineage rather than a diluted lineage supersedure queen.

On August 15th I did a sugar shake on my stronger hive. That colony tested at zero mites.

All in all I'm happy with the VSH bees. The nuc price was on par with non-VSH nucs. I have a sense that the queens might not be as robust as non-VSH queens. But as a first year beekeeper I'm really not in a good position to judge. The brood patterns aren't as tight as those that I see in the pretty pictures on the web. The cloud of lounging bees hanging about on the frames when I inspect the hives doesn't seem as dense as those shown in web pics or as I experienced first hand when helping some friends inspect their hives. But I can't complain about the varroa counts.

My hands-on experience is limited to my last 3 months as a beekeeper. It would be interesting to have one of OCBA's experienced beekeepers take a look and compare overall colony health and vitality between VSH and non-VSH colonies.


John Rintoul
Mobile (919) 414-4071
Home (919) 967-0674

"The failure of one thing (is) repaired by the success of another." - Thomas Jefferson on gardening




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