Since 1984 we had been operating a small apiary located in the challenging micro-climate of Washington State’s isolated North Olympic Peninsula: pollinating for family farms, and supplying local specialty markets with pure raw honey …

In 1997 when feral bee populations were thought to be near extinction due to varroa mites, a universal call went out from the USDA Honeybee Stock Breeding Center asking for queens to be submitted from “wild swarms”.  Located on the sparsely populated edge of the vast Olympic Wilderness, we realized we were uniquely situated to locate any genuinely feral colonies that may have survived unmanaged for decades in these harsh conditions.

By targeting remote areas whose local history told of early pioneer families introducing bees, we set out bait hives successfully trapping several swarms.  We submitted samples of our early captures for DNA analysis to Washington State University and received oral confirmation that mitochondrial markers indicated they belonged to a “cluster of bees” that included Italians; Carniolan; 2 genera of Greek bees; and Caucasians.  The reliable history of locations, and the color of the bees, confirmed our belief that they were most likely survivors of Caucasian stock introduced to the area by pioneer settlers in the 1800’s…That was when our ORIGINAL WILD SURVIVOR BEE BREEDING PROGRAM was born, and the real adventure began.

We continue to collect swarms; evaluate their resistance characteristics; and gradually enhance their performance with selective inclusion of proven USDA Primorsky Russian; SMR/VSH; and WSU Caucasian lines to achieve hardy feral-hybrid stock that now continues to demonstrate genetics capable of withstanding many of the lethal pests and pathogens that are plaguing honeybees today.