Queen rearing truly is an amazing and mesmerising process though requires a lot of patience and precision work made increasingly difficult by the battle with the cold, wet and windy weather conditions.
Step 1: Larvae collection!
Our lovely lady we collected from.
Step 2: The Starter!
A good starter is essential to looking after the larvae.
Step 3: Sealing Queen Cells!
Queen cells already sealed up by the 5th day in the finishing hive. The larvae go through the last stages of development to become queens. We only use 1 frame cell bar to ensure the highest probability the larvae are fed and cared for as well as possible.
Step 4: Admire the results of the hard work!
Our beautiful ladies from last year's season.
While there is a lot of hard work involved along with weather conditions being completely out of one's control, the reward and satisfaction felt at the end makes it all absolutely worth it. Bees never fail to leave us in absolute awe and we are so happy we get the chance to work with them everyday.