Our bees are:

1. Winter hardy
2. Productive
3. Gentle

The bees that Johnstons Honeybee Farm utilizes have been developed since 1991. We started with a Carniolian/ Italian hybrid and have been raising our own queens since then. We have suffered overwintering losses of around 75% three times and have bred from the bees that have survived. The first loss was caused by the advent of the tracheal mite, an internal parasite of bees; the second loss was caused by advent of the external parasite, Varroa destructor. More recently, losses have been caused by viruses transmitted by varroa.

Up until 2020, we considered our bees to be mite resistant and 2020 was our best honey production year so far. In the winter of 2020/ 21 most of our yards were hit hard by losses caused by viruses transmitted by varroa. By splitting our survivors, we made up all of our losses by July ’21. We still made a decent honey crop in 2021. In the winter of ‘21/’22 our overwintering losses were 30% with no great difference observed in treated or untreated hives. The growing season of 2022 produced a greater honey crop than two years earlier. During the winter 2022/ 23, some of our yards were again hit hard with losses.

So, while the actual varroa mite is not so much of a problem for our bees, viruses transmitted by the mites are a serious problem. Currently, the only methods to control the latest virus variant is to reduce mite levels through the use of miticides or breed bees that are naturally resistant to mites or are somehow immune to the virus itself. Our strategy is to use oxalic acid and formic on a portion of the operation in order to prevent unsustainable losses while using no miticides on the rest of the operation in an effort to find breeder queens more resistant to this current virus.