Queen production is considered one of the highest arts of the beekeeper's trade. Any beekeeper anywhere can manipulate a colony to produce a queen using the knowledge that honey bees are ready to rear emergency queens at a moments notice.
The quality of the queen produced, however, is predicated on a number of variables that a colony often cannot control. The human queen producer, on the other hand, can control conditions, resulting in an optimum queen. Thus, queen production is rather like wine creation. Anyone can produce a wine, but a fine wine requires a lot of extra effort and knowledge. The same is true for producing quality queens.
There is a distinction between producing queen honey bees and breeding them using genetic principles. The queen producer is not necessarily a "breeder" although many may give themselves this title. Customers buying queen honey bees do not often understand this. Because they are price conscious it may not register with them that inexpensive queens are simply "produced," and little if any "breeding" has been done in the process. It is up to customer to ask for details concerning how queens being sold are produced and/or bred. In no other beekeeping area do the words "let the buyer beware" have greater significance.
This lens is an attempt to bring together resources that will increase the knowledge of both customers and producers/breeders of honey bee queens. In addition, it complements The Global Bee Breeders Initiative, which gave rise to the Global Bee Breeders Association. If you have other resources that might fit here, please bring them to my attention.
As always, for more information, contact the Apis Information Resource Center.
Recommended Resources at Amazon.com
Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding
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Contemporary Queen Rearing
Amazon Price: (as of 12/11/2009)
Practical queen rearing,
Amazon Price: (as of 12/11/2009)
The rearing of queen bees (Bulletin / U.S. Bureau of Entomology)
Amazon Price: (as of 12/11/2009)
Queen Rearing
Amazon Price: (as of 12/11/2009)
Breeds and Types of Honey Bees
- Italian honey bee
- Perhaps the most common type kept by beekeepers.
- European dark bee
- The original honey bee brought to most places in the New World.
- Carniolan honey bee
- Known for its hardiness and adaptation to short seasons.
- Buckfast honey bee
- The Buckfast hybrid bee developed by "Brother Adam," and thought to be tracheal mite resistant.
- Russian honey bee
- Description of the Russian honey bee introduced into the U.S. as a Varroa-tolerant, survivor population.
- Minnesota hygienic bees
- Bees selected by Dr. Marla Spivak, University of Minnesota, for resistance to a number of diseases and maladies based on "hygienic" behavior assay.
- Suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) or Varroa-sensitive hygiene (VSH)
- Developed by Dr. John Harbo and colleagues at the USDA Baton Rouge bee laboratory.
Bee Breeding Programs
- Conserving the Dark Bee in Europe
- International Association for the Protection of Apis mellifera mellifera.
- Conserving the European Dark Bee, Germany
- Program to retain the dark bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, in Germany and Europe.
- Saving the Dark Bee in Switzerland
- A program dedicated to conserving the dark bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, in Switzerland.
- Conserving the European Dark Bee, Belgium
- Yet another project dedicated to saving the dark bee, Apis mellifera mellifera.
- University of Georgia - Bee Breeding Project
- University of Georgia program based on hygienic behavior and closed population breeding.
- Honey bee improvement program
- A program that appears to be inactive, but nevertheless has some interesting material.
- Russian honey bee (Ontario, Canada)
- Started by Dr. Medhat Nasr and now turned over to Francois Petit.
- Varroa-tolerant honey bees (Arizona)
- Description of developing Varroa tolerance in Arizona.
- Bee breeding project
- Juan Antonio Perez Sato, PhD student from Mexico in the UK.
- Russian honey bee project (USDA)
- Timeline of introduction of Russian honey bees into the U.S. and subsquent events.
- Bee Improvement in Cornwall
- Improving varroa tolerance in bees in Cornwall, by repeated selection of the best and replacement of the worst
- More on Minnesota Hygienics From the University of Minnesota
- A description of the philosophical basis of the Minnesota hygienics program.
- Bee Improvement and Breeders Association
- BIBBA is the acronym of the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association. BIBBA was founded in 1964 for the conservation, restoration, study, selection and improvement of the native and near-native honeybees of Britain and Ireland.
- Training in Instrumental Insemination
- Sue Cobey runs this training program as part of the programs at University of California, Davis.
- The New World Carniolan Honey Bee Project
- There's something about Apis mellifera carnica, the Carniolan honey bee. This child of the Balkans, originally from Slovenia, the future site of the 2003 Apimondia Congress, holds a special place in the hearts of many beekeepers. Although a minor component of U.S. bee stock, it is the majority in other parts of the world from Egypt to Chile. It has a panopoly of characteristics that are increasingly important to beekeepers, including gentleness, less-than-average propolis collection, and little inclination to rob, the real bugaboo of its cousin, Apis mellifera ligustica, the Italian honey bee. It is known as the "spring" bee for it builds population rapidly early in the active season. More importantly it closes down its brood rearing quickly when environmental conditions deteriorate, resulting in less food consumption and a potentially increased winter survival. It is considered in many parts of the world as the best bee stock in which to find resistance or tolerance to the Varroa mite. Some of the first evidence of Varroa tolerance, in fact, came from a population of Carniolan bees in Yugoslavia described by Dr. Jovan Kulincevic, an associate of the late Dr. Walter Rothenbuhler of The Ohio State University. This bee was subsequently introduced into the U.S. and is known as the "Yugo" bee.
- Brother Adam O.S.B. 1985; Breeding the Honeybee
- A lifetime spent perfecting the Buckfast strain enables Brother Adam to speak authoritatively on every aspect of bee breeding. Jean-Marie Van Dyck offers this via the courtesy of Northern Bee Books.
- TEMA Foundation - International Caucasian Bee Workshop
- Efforts to conserve the Caucasian Bee, Apis mellifera caucasica.
- Ontario Beekeeepers Association's Bee Breeding Program
- ONTARIO BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATIONS 2006 Honey Bee Breeding Program TECH TRANSFER PROGRAM
Supported by Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ontario, Canada - Olympic Wilderness Apiary
- In the 2004 we were informed that our OWA stock not only survived WSU's criteria selection process, but was also chosen as one of the final 8 individual stock lines being used in WSU's ongoing stock breeding program.
- British Columbia Beekeepers Project
- The BC Bee Breeders Association - the Queen Testing Project intends to define which stocks perform best under BC conditions and management techniques. We test Varroa-resistant stock in BC conditions to distinguish which queens merit further selection and produce daughters from the best queens.
- Northern States Queen Breeders Association
- A new queen breeders association, call the Northern States Queen Breeders Association (NSQBA) is being formed.
The focus of the association is for the improvement of northern genetics, a queen exchange program thus allowing diversification of genetics between members, and the ability of queen breeders to come together and learn from one another. - Australian Queen Bee Breeders Assoc.
- The Australian Queen Bee Breeders Association
- West Virginia Queen Producers Association
- Welcome! You are at the home page of the West Virginia Queen Producers Cooperative. Thank you for your interest in beekeeping and in our work.
WVQP was begun in 2008 to address the need to improve the quality of queen bees for beekeepers operating in the climatic conditions found in Appalachia. Beekeeping is currently a challenging proposition and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has received worldwide media attention. This has brought our dependence on the amazing honeybee into public view. The Mountain State of West Virginia has progressively worked to support beekeepers throughout the state.
The mission of the WVQP is to provide training and equipment to West Virginia beekeepers and to create a queen producing industry in West Virginia. The WVQP will teach members how to "raise their own queens" that will reflect the needs of West Virginia's climatic conditions and lead to increased hive survivability. - West Virginia Queen Producers Association
- Welcome! You are at the home page of the West Virginia Queen Producers Cooperative. Thank you for your interest in beekeeping and in our work.
WVQP was begun in 2008 to address the need to improve the quality of queen bees for beekeepers operating in the climatic conditions found in Appalachia. Beekeeping is currently a challenging proposition and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has received worldwide media attention. This has brought our dependence on the amazing honeybee into public view. The Mountain State of West Virginia has progressively worked to support beekeepers throughout the state.
The mission of the WVQP is to provide training and equipment to West Virginia beekeepers and to create a queen producing industry in West Virginia. The WVQP will teach members how to "raise their own queens" that will reflect the needs of West Virginia's climatic conditions and lead to increased hive survivability. - Russian Bee Breeders Association
- The Russian Honeybee Breeders Association received its' Articles of Incorporation in 2007 and held its' first annual meeting on November 1st, 2007, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The purpose of the association is to maintain and improve the various lines of Russian honeybees through propagation and selective breeding. All members are required to contribute to this extensive effort.
The initial Board of Directors of the group is made up of Charles Harper, CRADA holder and cooperator with the USDA Russian bee program, as well as Hubert Tubbs and Manley Bigalk, also both longtime cooperators with this program. As other members begin to contribute to the maintainence and selection of the various lines of bees these members will be certified by the Board of Directors as Russian Honeybee Breeders.
Collectively, all involved are pleased with the number of participants and their level of commitment. With many participants focused on this effort we anticipate even more rapid improvement in these bees.
Producers That Have Come to the Author's Attention
- Rossman Apiaries (Georgia)
- Rossman apiaries is one of the oldest queen producers in south Georgia. Mr. Fred Rossman also produces high quality cypress beekeeping equipment.
- Glenn Apiaries (California)
- A California producer that sells Russian, Minnesota Hygienics, Cordovan, Carniolan, and SMR/VSH stock.
- Pacific Queens (Chile)
- A partnership between France and Chile, Pacifica queens are rigorously selected by the "Bond test," partially described by the author in an article in Bee Culture (see the Bee Culture lens) on the 2005 American Beekeeping Federation meeting in Reno, Nevada.
- Training in Instrumental Insemination and queen breeding
- Sue Cobey runs this program from the Harry Laidlaw Research Center, University of California, Davis.
- Malka Queens (Argentina)
- Martín Braunstein and his partner, Sonia Verettoni, produce queens in La Plata, Argentina. Their "four-wheel-drive" bees are marketed to Europe and the Middle East.
- List of Bee and Queen Suppliers
- A list of bee suppliers in the U.S. and Australia. Also includes a list of equipment sources.
- Gilles Fert - Queens - Packaged bees - Books - Training
- Gilles Fert is a long-time producer of queens and package bees in Southwest France. He also has written books in several languages on queen rearing.
- Cooperativa de Criadores de Abejas Reinas de Chile
- A new queen breeding cooperative is taking shape in Chile.
- Wooten's Golden Queens
- In 1966 Shannon Wooten went to work for Homer Park, near Palo Cedro in Northern
California. Thus was his introduction to beekeeping. Homer was an excellent teacher, strict on how to do things the right way, and an experienced bee breeder.
Other Resources
http://www.honeybee.breeding.com/
Sue Cobey's innovative program providing training in instrumental insemination and queen breeding.
- Queen Rearing Video and Publication
- Produced by Dr. Marla Spivak and company at the University of Minnesota, the video concerns mostly queen rearing in the northern U.S., but is something anyone can use for a reference.
- Queen Rearing Instructions
- A good description of rearing queens from Glenn Apiaries.
- Brother Adam - Multilingual Bibliography
- Jean-Marie Van Dyck's page on the venerated Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey in several languages.
- Gilles Fert - Queen Breeding Consultant
- Gille Fert is internationally known as a queen breeding consultant and has written a book and produced a video on the subject.
- Honeymoon Apiaries (Bill Samples)
- Instrumental insemination equipment, a home made extractor, pictures of mites, and a list of beekeeping patents.
- DVD Available of Instrumental Insemination
- Information on Sue Cobey's training, consulting, equipment and service to the industry and research community in instrumental insemination . A new DVD in both English and Spanish is now available.
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