Queen Rearing Workshop, Part 1

As announced at the previous meeting, we are offering a Queen Rearing Session on Saturday, June 27, 2026 from 1 pm until about 4 pm. It will be held at the LaMonica’s blue barn at 5507 Rt 474, Ashville, NY.

There are many ways to produce high-quality queens; most, it seems, are scaled for production of large numbers of queens. We will be presenting a queen rearing model developed by Randy Oliver that can be used successfully by a beekeeper with a couple colonies and some standard equipment to produce 6-8 high-quality queens from their own stock. This is a practical and efficient method to practice the “fundamentals” of queen rearing. Topics will include: selecting “donor” queens for desirable traits, preparing a queenless “starter/finisher” colony to receive grafts, grafting, making wax queen cups, and preparing mating nucs to receive ripe queen cells. We will set up grafting stations, and then use frames from the association’s apiary to practice identifying the right sized larva and transferring them correctly to cups. There will also be a station for making wax queen cups. During the session, you will receive instructions for this queen rearing model, a grafting tool and a handful of queen cups to try raising queens at home if you wish. You will not be taking home any live grafts or larva, and do not need to bring any bees to the session.

This session is open to anyone who wants to learn about queen rearing. It’s an opportunity to learn how to graft larva and practice it, or to observe the process. We hope that participants will acquire the information and confidence to try raising some “homegrown” queens!

If you would like to participate, please contact Robyn at (716) 338-2830 or Laura (845) 797-0544……… We will send confirmation and instructions about what to bring, etc.