Beekeepers blame queens for everything from bad temper to poor honey crops. But quality in the strict sense means one thing: reproductive competency. Here is what the research says about how to assess it — and why the old timers saying queens aren’t what they used to be may well be right.
I used to think that the goal of the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (BIBBA) is primarily about encouraging beekeepers to raise queens from selected breeder-queens, and thus improve the quality of their stock. I don’t think many people would argue against such a noble cause. It’s in the name of the organisation; if … Read more
It should be fairly straightforward, shouldn’t it? A colony makes several virgin queens, eventually whittles them down to one, and she flies off on several mating flights. She returns to the welcoming embrace of her workers, and begins the long process of laying hundreds or thousands of eggs every day during the summer, autumn, and … Read more
For much of my beekeeping life, I have been fascinated by the trickier aspects of our noble craft. One of these is queen introduction, although my focus has generally been on mated queens. However, there are queen producers selling virgin queens, and even queen cells, so this research paper (details below) caught my eye. The … Read more