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| History of Our Company | |
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Steve Taber began
beekeeping as a boy during summers in upstate New After retiring from the USDA, Steve Taber began this bee breeding business in 1978 in the town of Vacaville, California. This location was chosen in order to be close to the UC Davis and its wonderful Bee Biology Facility. He had access to one of the best bee libraries in the country and the excellent staff of researchers who have their laboratories on this beautiful campus in the Sacramento Valley. Steve asked Tom Parisian to join him in setting up a stock breeding business which would be called Honey Bee Genetics. Tom had received his bachelors degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1973. He then came to UC Davis to do graduate research, specializing in bee diseases and the factors which effect Instrumental Insemination. In 1979, he started his own commercial queen rearing business. When Steve proposed working together, they began their partnership. Tom now manages the day to day aspects of the package bee and queens production, as well as, a very active pollination service in the Central Valley of California. Breeding Bees in California Located in sunny California,
our temperate This same good weather creates the oppurtunity for virgin queens to mate with our plentiful drones. This contributes directly to a queen's ability to lay a full compliment of eggs for one to two years. These queens in our own colonies produce large quantities of well nourished bees that can be prepared into our package bees during April and May. Our packages install easily and establish strong hives with good amounts of honey during the first season.
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York. He attended college at the University of Minnesota and
worked with Dr. C.L. Farrar. He then started his career with
the USDA, where he worked as a research scientist for thirty
years. At Baton Rouge, with Dr. Otto Mackensen, he pioneered
the use of Instrumental Insemination to breed queens to selected
drones. His research covered all of the areas of beekeeping and
bee biology. Steve has hundreds of papers to his credit and is
recognized as a world authority on bees. He wrote the book, Breeding
Super Bees which is an excellent source for information on
queen rearing at any level. Regular contributions to his bee
columns in the American Bee Journal and Gleanings are
read by a large following of beekeepers in all corners of the
globe. Currently, Steve is doing research on the small hive beetle
near his home in South Carolina.
weather produces the highest quality
of bees year round. Our queens and bees are the best in the industry, because
they have the best combination of wonderful weather and beekeepers
with the greatest expertise and heart! Located in the sunny Sacramento
Valley of central California, our bees enjoy the ideal climate
for breeding queens. The spring temperatures are warm and the
rain is just enough to stimulate lots of bee forage in the numerous
agricultural fields, which are fallow during this time of year.