Hamakua Apiaries VSH-Italian queen bees are bred selected for mite resistance, gentleness and rapid spring buildup.  VSH stands for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, and is one of the keys to keeping healthy, mite-resistant colonies.  The VSH trait was originated from USDA stock in Louisiana, and later developed commercially by a number of US commercial queen breeders.

Bees exhibiting the VSH trait interfere with the reproduction of varroa mites by detecting and removing bee pupae that are infested with varroa mites.  This VSH activity slows the spread of varroa, and keeps mite populations below damaging thresholds for long stretches of time, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for chemical treatments.  Bees that are bred to have high VSH traits are not only vigilant in their resistance to varroa mites, but they are also super-hygienic in general, which gives them excellent natural resistance against American Foul brood and Chalk brood. The best queens produce the best honey.

We focus our queen sales on orders of 25 to 100. We choose not to compete with the large queen producers, most of Hawaii queen producers are rock stars. Our focus is those beekeepers that fall in the cracks of no being able to order the quality of Hawaiian Queens.  Having a previous business in Northern California preparing for the almond season, I understand the need to meet the frame average.  Good beekeepers know their bees and strive to meet this minimum.

You will need to place orders for queens 2-3 weeks before shipping.