Only The Best of Queens
Me and Michael Palmer near Lake Champlain I imagine that we all have our heroes. On the matter of producing queens, mine are Jay Smith & Brother Adam (both no longer with us) and Mike Palmer (alive and well). The…
Category: Queen Rearing
New queens – the season has taken off!
This will be my new honey processing room This is what I’ve been waiting for. Those long winter nights and short days are past, new life is bursting forth everywhere I look, and proper beekeeping is back. It all happens…
Successful Queen Mating
Kieler Mating Nucs Best Time For Queen Mating Flights The problem with beekeepers is that we are all cooped up for ages over the winter with no bees to see. It isn't enjoyable. Then, suddenly, the weather improves, spring arrives,…
How I Make Queens
One of my lovely queens with quite light coloured bees Grafting, Cell Builders And Mating I'm good at learning from the successes, mistakes and wisdom of others. Once, we had a fishing tournament at school that I'd entered. Never having…
Are Small Queen Cells OK?
Queen Cells It's only the 7th of May, and I've already done my second batch of grafts. The queen cells from the first batch have mostly gone into mini-plus hives, with a few left over in the incubator. I'm really…
Temperature And Queen Colour
A 2021 Queen It's a non-beekeeping day today, and we have had some much-needed rain overnight. This should not be unusual here in Manchester, but it's actually been untypically dry. My bees have generally got off to a quick start…
Making Queens: Brother Adam
Buckfast Home Apiary 1965 (photo: David Kemp) The recent passing of David Kemp prompted me to review some of my notes from when I interviewed him. Mike Palmer often says that he believes Brother Adam's method of raising queen cells…
Survival Rate of New Queens
I'm going to be dipping into some research by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation in Australia in 2003. You can get the research paper here. It's by Rhodes and Somerville and has some clues that should help with…
They Fly?!
Photo by Boba Jaglicic on Unsplash Raising queens has helped my beekeeping enormously. I have been able to compare hives headed by home bred queens with 'self-made' queens. The latter tends to occur when bees swarm or when I make a 'walk away…
Virgins etc.
Eggs laid in cells as quickly as workers build them I stumbled upon a fantastic resource for beekeepers concerning the monitoring and management of Varroa mites by the Honey Bee Health Coalition. There is some comprehensive guidance, including videos plus…
The Optimism Of Spring
Honey bee and apple blossom Here in the UK, and presumably, across much of the northern hemisphere, we are in that beautiful time of the year when optimism reigns supreme. I'm optimistic that this season will be a great one.…
Mating Mathematics
Math or Maths? In 2005 some researchers studying matings in the Hope Valley (England) found out some interesting stats on mating distance. Mating distance is the distance between the hive from which the virgin queen flew and the colonies from…