American Foulbrood (AFB) Vaccinated Queen Bees
We are very happy to be able to provide vaccinated queens in partnership with Dalan Animal Health. As an authorized supplier of AFB-vaccinated queens, we are proud to provide an innovative solution to help in the fight against this deadly brood disease. American Foulbrood disease is one of the most feared problems that our honey bee colonies face. Historically, This disease has required the burning of colonies and their hives to stop it.
Dalan Animal Health has developed an industry-first non-chemical prophylactic solution to improve brood resilience to AFB. The company is working to develop their pipeline for other diseases, including European Foulbrood, Chalkbrood, and others. Which would be a positive for hobby beekeepers and commercial beekeepers as well.
These queens are sourced from a trusted breeder from whom we have sourced queens for years, who can take part in this new program. The process for vaccinating queens can be found here. It is a lengthy process that adds to the difficulty of breeding queens, but it is worth it. It's incredible how it works as the worker bees work to move the vaccine into their sisters. The honeybee vaccine is truly a remarkable step in the direction of helping honey bees stay healthy in today's environment.
When queen bees are orally inoculated with Dalan’s vaccine, protection works through a biological mechanism called transgenerational immune priming (TGIP), whereby the queen passes immunity to her daughters before they hatch. The vaccine exposes queen bees to inactive bacteria, which enables the larvae hatched in the hive to resist infection
Queens come marked at no extra charge, so they can be easily identified. Their mark is not the same as any traditional color used.
Our other traditional mated queens
