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Old Sol Bees A+

22K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  ruthiesbees 
#1 ·
TLDR: queen went missing, called old sol and bought a new queen, found queen on comb UNDER the hive. O well another split :)

Old Sol was able to accommodate me and get a queen sent out here quickly. She arrived safely, sent via USPS. Package was marked to call me when it got to the post office, post office called at 8:30 this morning.

Very happy at being able to get a queen on short notice. Not to happy about the pol-line queen hiding under the bottom board, weird one she is.

Service was great, look forward to acquiring more drone mothers from them next year if this queen does well.
 
#8 ·
I would like some as well, but I want to wait until WSU has more pure stock. Right now they are at 80%, meaning if you are buying OM daughters from one of their breeders, those hives are 40%.
 
#10 ·
Their queens are bred in OR, but the breeders came from Sue @ WSU
OM = open mated

They used frozen germaplasm, and crossing with carnica to get the caucasians.
F1 Caucasian X carnica = 50% caucasian
F2 Cacuasian X (Caucasian X carnica) = 75% caucasian

and so on.

http://bees.wsu.edu/breeding-program/queens/
2017 Caucasian breeder queens – instrumentally inseminated. The 2017 Caucasian breeder queens will have greater than 80% genetic origin from Old World A. m. caucasica sources with the remaining genetic background sourced from US commercial Carniolan strains.
For those wanting some new genetics, they are probably a great addition. I want some, but I'm waiting for the 2018 II queens from WSU, assuming they are back crossing them with stored germaplasm again.

I do need to pick up a good number of NUCs next year, or perhaps packages, but if I go the NUC route ill go to old sol, and take whatever queens I can.
 
#11 ·
Open mated, uh should of known!

If that's the way it is then I'm kinda disappointed. Maybe I should ask for 60% of my money back since I only received 40% of what I paid for. Hmmmm.

The Nuc was not what I was expecting and had a queen cage inside. Not planning on buying anymore Nucs, maybe some queens.

Did Olympic apiary not have queens? Thinking of getting queens from them next year.

Thank you for the info
Scott
 
#12 ·
You certainly got what they are selling, I'm sure. You can't expect a II queen for $40-60 bucks. Nothing available in the US is "pure", they are all crosses to some extend. I'm sure you got a 80% caucasian queen, mated with whatever was flying that day. I wouldn't dare ask for any % back, that is just mad.

Olympic Wilderness Apiary? They are good friends, they got me into bees. With the wet spring and the heavy smoke, they didn't have the best year. They are so picky about the queens they release, if they dont think they are mated just right then they dont sell them. I didn't want to take potential stock away from everyone that was waiting. Their queens are my favorite, I've used them for the foundation of my breeding stock. I wanted to bring in more queens from other lines to evaluate, to help diversify my own stock (since im doing instrumental insemination, and not OM, I wanted to ensure my genetics are as varied as I can get).

You wouldn't be disappointed in OWA queens. They have somewhat of a reputation for being "hot" but that dates back to their F1 russian cross from many years ago. They are on par with the rest of my queens for gentleness, and are far from hot. I cull "hot" queens, as I have a 6yr old who works bees with me, I've not culled any OWA related queens. Culled a bunch of Italians for that reason this year.++
 
#14 ·
ahh I missed the joke, it takes a bit for me to wake up.

OWA queens winter very well in the PNW, I had them in 9 frame medium boxes, singles last winter, and it was one crazy winter here. O and one of those frames was a feeder frame I left in because I didn't have enough comb. 100% came out alive, and are all still sitting in my pasture.
 
#22 ·
Update: Bees made it through winter great ... Definitely like to propilis everything.
You must have gotten the Caucasian strain. I bought an "unlabeled" one last fall from them at a great price. She made it through winter in a 5 frame nuc and was installed in a 4' topbar hive this spring. Those bees have done great. I've pulled multiple combs of brood to make splits, etc. Even stole some honey and they have filled it all back up again. Good gentle bees (I don't use smoke at all, even full size hives, so they have to be gentle). Mite counts in late July were low. Haven't seen this colony propolize everything like the Caucasian queen I bought from New River Honey Bees this year, so my guess is I got one of his Survivior stock queens, and I'm very happy with it. Did a bit of queen rearing with the Old Sol queen this spring for nucs I sold, and plan to do more next spring with her.
 
#21 ·
I received a few Old Sol queens this spring. I got both some Survivor queens and some Caucasians. I liked them both but liked the Survivors a little better. Both are good, gentle, productive, hardy bees. I ordered more Survivor queens for next spring.
 
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