Philosophy

        All European bees before 1893 were raised in 4.9mm cells. After that year they were artificially enlarged to 5.4mm by A.I. Root and others. This bigger bee size worked for over 93 years, but has now become one of the problems that the bees face today. The thinking at that time was bigger bees, more honey. Studies have shown that the natural cell bees have 22% more cells per frame than the 5.4mm bees.

       Our breeder stock has proven to be survivors with a natural resistance to the Tracheal and Varroa mite. They must also be top quality brood and honey producers. One of the advantages of having such a variety of large genetic diversity is that studies have shown that they produce 30% more brood comb than a straight line genetic bee.

        We have never used toxic chemicals on our bees. For the last seven years we have used natural oils to strengthen the bees immune system. About that time we switched to the 4.9mm bee and other organic practices.