I count myself very lucky that 11 years ago I was befriended and mentored by a very experienced commercial beekeeper with decades of queen rearing behind him. The lessons I learned were soon put into practise and within 3 months of receiving my first colony I was raising my own queens. Instantly hooked on this process, his instruction is a big part of what led me to over 100 colonies 5 years later. The startling difference between the Buckfast colonies I raised and the swarms I collected led me to the writings of Brother Adam who’s practises to the best of my ability I have adopted. I’m a beekeeper that likes to be led by the science and as such there are studies published every year that change my methods to some degree or other. I’m sure Brother Adam would approve of this as his ethos and bee improvement generally is not a process that should ever stand still.Queen rearing and bee breeding is the aspect of beekeeping that truly gets me out of bed in the morning. Better Queens, healthier and more productive bees each year is the objective, the goal, is the unachievable perfect bee
My Bee keeping journey started off with an off hand comment to a life long friend and mentor ‘I’m thinking of keeping bee’s John’. A couple of days later John, who has been keeping bee’s for over 30 years arrived at my house with one of his spare hives. We set it up at the top of the garden, where a swarm found it’s way in. Little did I know just how far down the rabbit hole I was about to go. That is nearly 6 years ago, I have gone from that sole colony to over 75 in that time frame and a lot of that I owe to Stuart patience and mentoring in everything bee’s.
I came to know Stuart after randomly sitting next to him at our local association meeting and as you do we found we had the same passion for bee’s. To say it’s been a steep learning curve is an understatement and it’s hard to comprehend that we are now starting up our own Queen rearing company amazes me to this day that it started with a random comment to a friend that has not only started me down this path but is responsible for me meeting my wife also but that’s a story for another day.
I just want to echo Stuarts comments, our goal is to produce a docile, highly productive and healthy bee for our customers. Each year presents a different challenge and I am looking forward to seeing what those are this year.
