Every spring I re-queen my strongest hives in order to reduce swarming. A colony is less likely to swarm when the queen’s pheromones are strong, and the pheromones are strongest in a first-year queen. In fact, according to most sources, a new queen is the single best deterrent to swarming. However, it seems ridiculous to […] Read more
Beekeepers are taught that the queen will most likely be in the brood nest. That is, she will be on a frame which contains brood or is ready for eggs. She will almost never be on the end frames, on combs of honey, or strolling in out-of-the way places looking for peace and solitude. The […] Read more
A tweet from the Sheffield Honey Company reminded me that I should clarify the difference between queen rearing and queen breeding–and they are absolutely right. Most of us who rear queens do it to provide serviceable queens for ourselves or others. We need queens to replace those that are failing or those that have died. […] Read more
Before you begin queen rearing, it helps to understand the lingo. Authors of queen-rearing instructions often use a variety of synonyms which make a confusing subject even more difficult. Below are some of the most common terms—and their synonyms—I found in recent publications. Artificial insemination (or instrumental insemination): The manual transfer of sperm from drones […] Read more
The easiest method of raising a new queen is to move a ripe queen cell from a busy colony into a nuc or mating box stocked with nurse bees and brood. This is usually the first type of queen rearing a new beekeeper tries and it is both fun and effective. Plus it gives a […] Read more
Grafting is the process of transferring young larvae from worker cells into special cups used for raising queens. Larvae used for grafting are selected from the offspring of a “breeder” queen, that is, a queen whose genetics appeal to the beekeeper. Larvae used for grafting must be between 12 and 24 hours old. These larvae […] Read more
Many beekeepers believe that you must remove attendant bees from queen shipping cages before you introduce a caged queen into a hive. They believe the queen will more likely be killed by the receiving hive if both the attendants and the queen have a foreign odor. This simply is not true. If you install the […] Read more