Fat Mountain Queens
Our mother queens are chosen for winter-hardiness, mite resistance, frugality with honey stores, and responsiveness to nectar dearth. This means that they keep mite numbers low. We use a mid-winter application of Oxalic Acid vaporization if necessary. Colonies go into winter carrying modest numbers of bees, enough to keep warm, but not so many that excessive honey stores are needed.  When a dearth occurs, the bees stop producing brood in response, and resume again when nectar is available.  Our bees are gentle enough to work bare-handed, but aggressive enough that you want to wear a veil.  We believe that slightly more aggressive bees survive mites better, but we don't tolerate bees that we dread working. Our bees live next to our pigs, and do not chase us out of our garden or apiary if we go to  them without a veil.

Fat Mountain Nucs
We began producing nucleus colonies in 2017 and are working to create a solid queen base of locally adapted, over-wintered survivors suited to the Four Corners Region.  Nucs are available in standard deep frames, medium depth frames, or top bar.  The dimensions of our top bars are 18" wide x 12" deep. We deliver nucs full of bees, with a newly mated queen, or over-wintered queen at your request. We can also deliver specialty queens such as Saskatraz or Purebred Russian queens.