That's the first time I have seen that behavior. I have never been around VSH bees. I treat by vaporizing with oxalic acid. Three treatments about a week apart. I do that four times a year. Wouldn't it be great if the VSH trait could be bred into all the strains of bees? By all of us treating bees for varroa, it is really hampering the selection process of the strongest surviving.
I searched for VSH Italian Bees. The first ones I bought were from a store in South Carolina, they were not that great. The bees in the video are from a VSH Queen I purchase here in North Carolina but she came from somewhere in California. Some of my other hives have queens from BeeWeaver Apiaries in Texas. This is the first year I have had VSH bees. My hope is that some of them will survive the winter.
Thanks for the information. I have two hives in my back yard that were both caught swarms in may. Both hives are doing well. I do about two mite counts a week using the board method. One hive the highest count has been six, and the other hive has been 31, 19, 13 ,15 93, 55 . Of course the low count hive is much more aggressive than the other. And your comment from above "My hope is that some of them will survive the winter." made me worry because I live in Michigan and many bee keepers had 50% losses over the last winter. I will be watching both hives closely for the rest of the year to see if the one hive continues to show resistance to mites, compared to the other.
I specifically went looking for VSH Queens. I purchase queens in a local store from California and Georgia. I also bought some mail order from BeeWeaver Apiaries in Texas.
Thanks for your reply, I am a beekeeper and I was thinking to replace all my queens to VSH, but I am studying first their capability of honey production, you know at the end this is what matters as a business. As far as I know there are VSH carniolan and VSH italian, in your opinion which one is better as honey production?
