Honey Bees Genetics

History

Steve Taber and Tom Parisian began Honey Bee Genetics in 1979 with a goal of breeding a disease resistant stock of hygienic bees with an ability to overcome American Foulbrood. He gained expertise by breeding bees for specific characteristics that led to changes in hygienic and resistant behavior in the entire breeding line. Today, HBG still follows the same successful breeding techniques of continuously testing our stock for these traits and carefully breeding our queens to produce stock with specific hygienic traits that help create resistance to Varroa mites and other diseases. HBG was purchased in 2020 by the Tauzer Family who had collaborated with Tom over their collective 40 years of beekeeping. TA and HBG now partner with the USDA, UC Davis Bee Lab, and The Bee Informed Partnership to continually study the genetic traits and behaviors of their three different queen genetic lines and ensure the queens they produce will sustain healthy hives in the ever changing environment.

Specialties

Honey Bee Genetics produces queens and bees year round in the temperate climate of the Sacramento Valley of California. We are a leader in the industry because our beekeepers have many years of expertise and care about producing healthy and hygienic honey bees. Our queens are well mated with plentiful, healthy drones leading to their ability to lay eggs in large quantities for several years. These bees produced by queens in our own colonies are prepared into our hive starter packages each spring. Our packages install easily and establish strong, hygienic hives that are excellent honey producers and pollinators.