We have a new soure of honeybees on La Gonave.

The honeybee program on La Gonave is getting bigger.  We now have another supplier of honeybees on La Gonave.  This will help the industry on the island to diversify.  By having different hives, meaning that the queen bee didn't have a hive and then it split for some reason and the hive then went on and formed another.  The bees in both of those hives are genetically related.  While not a problem, over time, this can be an issue.  To have a strong hive, you need to have a diverse group of honeybees to prevent weakness.

As a queen gets older she produces less eggs, and eventually she is killed off by the hive.  As a result hives will try to make another queen, if the hive have enough bees and honey to do so.  That queen is genetically the same as her mother.  Within the hive drone cells are always produced.  These males are only designed to mate with the queen.  As the queen flies out of the hive to mate (brand new queen), she will run into several drones and mate with many of them.  All of them have a role in the queen being mated.  Once mated the queen honeybee is mated for life and will never leave the hive, unless the hive becomes unsafe.  The problem is that the queen will mate with her brothers.  Over time this will create a weak colony, with less ability to defend their hive.  Also they will be more likely to get disease.

So by having a new source of honeybees, it ensures that we have a diverse group of bees.  We will be able to allow for queen rearing, which will produce more queens, thus growing the industry.

It's started to gain major traction and we are excited to add a new supplier.

Go Gonave!

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