Rearing Queen Honey Bees

This book is the second edition of a popular and practical guide for those who want to grow a few or many queens. Queen rearing has been in practice for over a century. It is an art which requires patience, skill, and a steady hand. Whether you grow one, ten, or a thousand queens, you mush have a thorough knoweldge of the life history of the queen and how she differs from a worker bee.

The queen is the most important individual in the colony. She lays egges and produces the chemical substances that regulate social order in the hive. How well she does these things depends upon her physical condition, and this, in turn, depends upon the circumstances under which she is reared. The beekeeper who raises queens has a distinct advantage by producing better queens.

Since this book was published in 1979, many aspects of American beekeeping have changed. Two parasitic mites and the Africanized honey bees have invaded the North American continent. These invasions have increased beekeeper interest in queen rearing as a tool to help develop mite resistance and manage Africanized bees. The author has added a new chapter on rearing Africanized queens, based on his experience working with them in Brazil. The entire book has been extensively updates to meet the needs of today's progressive beekeeper.