The New World Carniolan (NWC) breeding program, founded in 1982, is heading into its 40th generation. Modeled on the Page-Laidlaw Closed Population Breeding concept, the program was modified to establish and maintain a Carniolan population to provide quality queens to the industry. The NWC was initiated at Vaca Valley Apiaries in California by Susan Cobey and Tim Lawrence and moved with Cobey to several Universities; the Ohio State University, University of California, Davis, and currently Washington State University.
To ensure the long term future of the NWC breeding program, a Certified NWC Producer Partnership has been established with Strachan Apiaries and Buzz’s Bees, to maintain the NWC breeding program into the future and provide NWC breeder queens to the industry. Valeri Severson and her son Phillip Russell of Strachan Apiaries, and Buzz and Nicole Landon of Buzz’s Bees, have taken on the role of Certified NWC Producer Partners. Strachan Apiaries and Buzz’s Bees are now officially producing instrumentally inseminated, select NWC breeder queens with the continuing support of Susan Cobey and Steve Sheppard at WSU.
WSU’s sponsorship of the NWC Certified Partners includes technical support in maintenance of the NWC program and the continuing enhancement of the NWC breeding population with the importation of A. m. carnica germplasm from Europe, under the conditions of a USDA- APHIS permit held by WSU. Proceeds of the NWC Certified Partnership will help sustain a source of high quality NWC breeder queens into the future to support the queen producer industry.
For information of NWC breeder queen availability, contact:
Buzz’s Bees (530) 532-4302
https://www.buzzsbees.com
Strachan Apiaries (530) 674-3881
https://strachanbees.com
