The Practical Queen Breeder: Beekeeping Naturally

by Michael Bush

Overview

My intent for this book is a step by step of how I do queen breeding and queen rearing. Some of this will be why I do it, but mostly it will be what I do. I may mention other methods in passing, but mostly this is just what I currently do. I have done many things in the past and most of them worked more or less. This method is the one I find most reliable in getting cells started, finished and mated. This is not to say that other methods don’t work. A lot of what works and doesn’t has to do with circumstances. If there is a flow you don’t seem to be able to do anything wrong. If there is a dearth things become quite difficult and sometimes you don’t seem to be able to do anything right. The reason I do this method is that it has the most success in my experience under adverse conditions as well as good conditions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614760764
Publisher:	X-Star Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/01/2020
Pages:	212
Sales rank:	289,916
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.48(d)

About the Author

"His writing is like his talks, with more content, detail, and depth than one would think possible with such few words... his website and PowerPoint presentations are the gold standard for diverse and common sense beekeeping practices."--Dean Stiglitz Michael Bush is an internationally recognized author and speaker on natural beekeeping. He is the author of The Practical Beekeeper, which has been published in five languages and is one of the authoritative sources on sustainable beekeeping without chemical treatments. His website is an invaluable source of information on natural, chemical-free beekeeping and just plain beekeeping. The topics are based on the questions that have come up on beekeeping forums over and over. The wisdom of his methods is evidenced by the fact that he successfully keeps bees through the harsh winters of Nebraska. He has had an eclectic set of careers from printing and graphic arts, to construction to computer programming and a few more in between. Currently he is working in computers. He has been keeping bees since the mid 1970's, usually from two to seven hives up until the year 2000. Varroa forced more experimentation which required more hives and the number has grown steadily over the years from then. By 2008 it was about 200 hives. He is active on many of the Beekeeping forums with last count at about 60,000 posts between all of them. He has an extensive web site on beekeeping at www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm "What Michael reminds us of, is that beekeeping is a dynamic art. And that like most things of beauty and meaning, they are part of a system, a dance of relationships that requires as much or more intuitive insight as hard science to understand." --Scott Klein

Table of Contents

About this book

Section 1: Concepts

Breeding

The Whole Bee Concept

Queen Rearing Concepts

Queen Rearing Method Names

A Few Good Queens

Quality of Emergency Queens

Timing

Section 2: Equipment

Equipment you will need

Swarm Box/Starter Hive

Grafting Tools

Cell Bars

Cell Cups

Easel

Mating Nucs

Calendar

Brush

Hairclip Queen Catcher

Marking Pens

Marking Tube

Queen Muff

Section 3: Method

Overview

Setup the Cell Starter

Find the Larvae to Graft From

Grafting

Put the Cells in the Starter

Setting up a Cell Finisher

Setting up Mating Nucs

Checking the Mating Nucs

Section 4: Management

Weekly Management

Managing Mating Nucs

Shipping Queens

Queen Banks

Winding Down in the Fall

Things I don’t currently do

Synopsis

Conclusion

Appendices

Glossary

Acronyms

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"What Michael reminds us of, is that beekeeping is a dynamic art. And that like most things of beauty and meaning, they are part of a system, a dance of relationships that requires as much or more intuitive insight as hard science to understand." --Scott Klein

"His writing is like his talks, with more content, detail, and depth than one would think possible with such few words... his website and PowerPoint presentations are the gold standard for diverse and common sense beekeeping practices."--Dean Stiglitz

From the Publisher