Bee Improvement Strategies
A key question any individual or group should consider is what method should I/we follow to Improve our bees and to produce queens. There are a few key choices depending on your aims, capacity (time and equipment) and capabilities. I’m assuming the reader is looking for a bee that is native and/or locally adapted.Kevin Thorn ...
How I select my ‘Breeder Queens’
At the start of a new season I like to make a shortlist of which queens are good enough to breed from, in other words, to become my breeder queens. I do this by looking at the current condition of the colony as well as looking at the record of past performance ...
Breeding honeybees on a small scale – Dorian Pritchard
With an open mating system I find you can manage with just four colonies to breed successfully ...
Steve Rose Queen Rearing
This is a method of persuading non-prolific and non-swarmy bees to raise queen cells on a regular basis through the season ...
Queen Rearing Timetable
This Microsoft XL file was written by Angus Stokes and Albert Knight and provides an interactive way to prepare timetables for using the Jenter or Cupkit Cellplug Box. With a bit of tweaking it can be used for other methods of cell raising ...
John Harding Queen Rearing
The main purpose of this systemis its versatility and to have an additional use so you always double its value in purpose, and it's not lying around for the best part of the year unused. Given the choice honeybees prefer vertical narrow empty spaces with unlimited depth, and just enough space to build 5 or6 combs side by side ...
Find, Mark & Clip the Queen
Finding queens in Spring, and marking and clipping them whenever necessary, has become an integral part of my seasonal beekeeping programme. Advice from Micheál Mac Giolla Coda ...