Old
Sol Enterprises is a family run business that has striven to
promote sustainable agriculture and a healthy environment since
its inception in 1997.
The pursuit of these endeavors has taken our family down many
interesting and enlightening paths which have allowed Old Sol's
founder, John Jacob, to follow his deepest convictions by expanding
and utilizing his educational background (B.S. in Biology, with
Minors in Chemistry and Economics).
We recognize that sustainable agriculture and a clean, healthy
environment will require our global culture adopting a new paradigm;
especially in developing countries. Elements of this new model
must include an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach to
pest management, support of local businesses', and many elements
of organic farming.
The consequences of the "old ways" of doing things have been
dire and lead to many insidious and intractable problems including
the release of toxic chemicals into our environment, and a treadmill
of pesticide addiction, as pests and pathogen species evolve
resistance to an ever increasing number of insecticides and
antibiotics. We have an on-site Biologist specializing in entomology
with many year of field experience with honey bees.
These ideologies are incorporated into Old Sol's daily apiary
operations. Vexing problems, such as Varroa mites, are controlled
with an IPM approach which includes screened bottom boards,
very limited use of acaricides, food grade mineral oil, and
most importantly, a cutting edge bee breeding program.
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Our quest for a better bee began with Minnesota Hygienic Italians
and New World Carniolans. After a few disappointing years of
heavy losses to Varroa mites using these lines of bees; Old
Sol began participating in several Department of Agriculture
sponsored breeding programs. In 1999 Old Sol was one of the
first handful of bee breeders to acquire USDA Russian mite resistant
stocks.
These lines of bees were a vast improvement; but still no silver
bullet for the parasitic mite syndrome (PMS) and losses to Varroa
continued. However several descendants managed to survive and
continue to show some level of mite tolerance. By 2002 many
of the most susceptible lines of bees had naturally been winnowed
from our gene pool, and another line of mite resistant bees
had been developed and released by The USDA Honey Bee Breeding
and Genetics Laboratory.
These bees developed by Doctors Harbo and Harris are known as
Suppressed Mite Reproduction (SMR) or Smart Bees. SMR queens
were eagerly incorporated into our honey bee improvement program,
and after six years of careful selection and hybridization we
have derived several lines of Varroa resistant stock. These
breeder queens were selected from untreated survivor stock.
Further selection criteria include gentleness, fecundity, and
honey production. Daughters of these queens are offered for
sale to the public. |
