Queen rearing runs on a scale from meeting your own needs to commercial production. As the scale grows, so does the discipline required.

Three scales

• Own use: A few queens a year. Simple methods suffice
• Small scale: Tens of queens; starter and finisher colonies are separated
• Commercial: Hundreds of queens; continuous cycles, many mating nuclei and an exact schedule

What commercial production requires

• Breeder colonies: Selected and regularly assessed
• Drone colonies: Half the mating quality comes from here
• Starters and finishers: Used in rotation
• Mating nuclei: Enough of them, regularly tended
• A schedule: From grafting to delivery
• A record system

Quality or numbers

Holding quality gets harder as scale grows. The commonest causes of quality loss:

• Grafting larvae that are too old
• A starter colony that is not strong enough
• No feeding during a break in forage
• Too few drones
• Forcing mating in poor weather

A few good queens are worth more than many mediocre ones — for the customer and for the producer's reputation.

Sale and delivery

• Queens travel in a cage with attendants and candy
• They must be protected from extreme heat and cold
• Transit time should be short
• The introduction method should be explained to the buyer

A significant share of queens that are not accepted fail not from a production fault but from wrong introduction.

Records and traceability

For each queen the breeder line, grafting date and mating method should be recorded.

This is needed for breeding and it shows the source if a problem arises.

Regulation

The sale and movement of queens is regulated in many countries and may require health certification and registration. Learn the rules in your own country before starting commercial production.