JC's Bee Blog

As a beekeeper, the key to a sustainable apiary is genetics. Most all beekeepers know that the queen is he heart of the colony but do not know how important her genetics are. It's also important to work with genetics from your region. Every year southern beekeepers send 1000's of bee packages up to the northern states and each year, many of those same colonies dies because they are not used to the climate change. This Queen rearing Series will teach you how to raise your own queen bees from the very beginning of the process. Before you start though, check out and download my queen rearing calendar (Below). Self-Generating Queen Rearing Calendar  Download Calendar  here Queen Rear Calendar Wheel: https://sustainablehive.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/queen_rearing_calendar_wheel-2-pages.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Iv4z1k2qsP0fjt8dpk7oR-DldUwkSP9PF8-GsyLwX-3uGTeR47duDqhU Step 1... Building A Cell Starter / Setting Up A Finisher Colony Step 2... Grafting Day......

With the over whelming response to my cell punch video. I decided to put a kit together for those of you who wish to try it. With this kit you'll be raising your own queen bees very easily. We all know that the queen bee is the heart of the colony. Without her the colony will fail. We also know that in order in start a new colony of bee you'll need an additional queen. Their are several ways to raise queens but not all of these methods raise high quality queens. What is a high quality queen? This would be a queen that lays thousands of eggs a day without failing. She should have large brood patterns to produce that monstrous colony to make large honey yields. To get high quality queens you need to pick the correct rearing procedure. Many beekeeper choose to graft. This process can rear great queens if all the steps are followed perfectly. To do this correctly you must have good eye sight and a very steady hand. You also must pick the correct age larva and transfer it with...

  As a beekeeper I like to be able to make what I need for my bees. By doing this I know what I am getting which is a plus in my book.  I would like to teach you how to make your own wax cups to raise your queen bees in. This is not a difficult task but it can get messy if your not careful. Whats needed to complete wax cups: 1. 100% Pure bees wax melted 2. 5/16 dowel rod About 6" long 3. A cup of cold water 4. Sandpaper or sander 5. 1 Jz-Bz plastic queen cup We will start by shaping the tip of the dowel rod. You need to round the tip somewhat and bevel in the sides. It needs to look like the bottom of a cell (nicely rounded). The bees will reject anything they do not like. Just remember practices makes perfect, right? If you fail try something a little different.  Spend some time shaping the end of your dowel with sandpaper or electric sander. Just don't take off to much. Use your  Jz-Bz queen cup for a reference  on the size. Once you get...

   If you are raising your own queen bees then you know how important it is to have good drone stock in range. Or maybe your planning to setup more yards this year. In this article I want to share a tip on laying out your yards. Bees fly roughly 2 miles from the hive and with this knowledge I took it a step farther. Just to make sure my bees were able to reach each other from different yards. In order to follow these steps I am about to share with you. The following will be needed. 1. A county map ( Of  your bee yard county) 2. Translucent Plastic Folders 3. Thumb Tacs 4. Drawing Compass 5. Scissors      Now on your county map look for the "Scale Information". This area is usually located in one of the corners of the map. You are looking to see how big 2 miles is on your map. For instance on my map 2 inchs is 2 miles. So with that information I can now set my drawing compass and begin preparing my circles. Now as you have probably noticed I sugges...