Queen rearing means producing queens under the beekeeper's control rather than leaving it to the colony. It is the step that turns a beekeeper from someone who keeps bees into someone who shapes them.

The fact it rests on

Queen and worker come from the same egg. The only thing that creates the difference is feeding: a larva fed continuously on royal jelly becomes a queen.

Queen rearing is therefore the work of persuading a colony to feed selected larvae as queens.

The age of the larva

This is the single detail that most affects quality. The younger the larva when it is grafted, the better the queen.

A larva grafted late produces a queen with fewer ovarioles and a shorter life. She may look normal but the colony pays for it a season later.

The practical rule: graft the smallest larvae you can see, floating in a visible bed of brood food.

Two functions, two colonies

• Starter: Gets the grafted larvae accepted. It must be queenless, crowded and rich in young bees
• Finisher: Feeds the accepted cells until they are capped. It may be queenright, with the queen behind an excluder

Separating the two protects both quality and the colonies; a colony kept permanently queenless wears out.

The schedule

• The cell is capped about eight days after grafting
• The queen emerges about twelve days after grafting
• She matures for a few days, then flies to mate
• Eggs appear a few days after mating

Cells must be distributed to mating nuclei before the queens emerge. The first to emerge destroys the rest.

This is why the grafting date must be written down. Memory costs a batch of cells every season.

Conditions

• Drones must be present and mature. Without them the queen cannot mate
• There must be a flow, or the colonies must be fed
• The weather must allow mating flights
• The season must leave time for the new colony to prepare for winter

Choosing the breeder

Rearing queens from an average colony reproduces average. The breeder colony should be chosen on records, not impressions: overwintering, temperament, hygienic behaviour, brood pattern.

The drone side matters as much. Leaving drone comb in selected colonies improves the pool the new queens will mate into.

Scale

Rearing a handful of queens for your own use needs little equipment and no great skill. Commercial production is a different undertaking: continuous cycles, many mating nuclei, exact timing and records.

Most beekeepers gain most from the first: replacing the worst queens each year with daughters of the best.