Hi I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to episode 51 of my podcast, Beekeeping Short and Sweet. This week it’s time to look at some of my favourite queen rearing techniques and one that I’ve particularly struggled with.Gain access to more content, videos, early release podcasts and more at www.patreon.com/norfolkhoneyThe Nicot System that I am using was kindly supplied to me by Bee Equipment, online beekeeping equipment suppliers, equipment.co.uk/">https://bee-equipment.co.uk/

Welcome back to another weekly podcast, seems strange to think that it’s been a full year since I started my podcasts, next week sees podcast 52 and with the exception of a couple of week’s break over Christmas I’ve managed to stick to my commitment of delivering to you a weekly podcast about beekeeping, I’m delighted to have reached this milestone but I couldn’t have done it without the support from those of you who take the time out of your busy schedules to drop me an occasional message of support, so thank you for that.

If there’s anyone out there listening who would like to support me further do take a look at my patreon page where you can gain access to more content and as we’re heading towards the start of the new season there’s never been a better time to get on board and through the active season I’ll be producing at least three videos per week with only one of those being available on YouTube the rest will only be available on my patreon page, As usual I’ll post a link in the notes to accompany this podcast.

So, Queen Rearing….

It might seem a little early to be talking about queen rearing, it is only the beginning of February, but, the season will soon be upon us and if you haven’t planned what you are going to do you could find yourself missing the boat and playing catch up instead of enjoying a full season.

I thought I would just talk through some of the queen rearing techniques I’ve used over recent times and give you some thoughts on which technique might best suit you and your beekeeping.

I’ll try to go through them in terms of the quantity of queen cells you want for your season starting with the back garden beekeeper with just a couple of colonies and work through to the methods that have the ability to produce hundreds of queen cells.