Queen excluders: are they needed for successful beekeeping?

queen excluder on a hive

Answer: it depends. That is always the answer for every beekeeping question, or so it seems. Actually, there is one which is always ‘yes’ – see end of this article. When I had kept bees for only two or three years, I decided to forego queen excluders, to see what happened. This is actually quite … Read more

Honey Bee Polyandry: The Secret to Their Success

Chromosomes

Honey Bee Polyandry: The Secret to Their Success. Yep, a nice catchy headline, but for most beekeepers the polyandrous nature of honey bees is not much of a secret at all. When a virgin honey bee queen takes her risky mating flight to a drone congregation area she will have sex with many drones (male … Read more