Amy is a queen breeder. Her business is called Kereru Queen bees, which she runs with her two sisters and their husbands. The business was originally started by Amy’s father John over 40 years ago. The business is based in Kereru, a small farming district 60 km's southwest from Napier/Hastings on the eastern foothills of the northern Ruahine ranges in Hawkes Bay.

Contact Amy - [email protected]

If you are interested in reading a nice book about Amy's Grandfather growing up with the bees you can email Amy's mother - [email protected] 
I have a copy of this book which my family read in one sitting and loved it. 

Check out Amy's dad queen cell carriers here https://www.carricell.com/

An interview with Amy's grandfather from 2015 https://knowledgebank.org.nz/audio/berry-ian-interview/

Comment or leave feedback on the episode post in the Facebook group for this podcast 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee

Podcast proudly brought to you by 

Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees (Ballarat VIC, Australia)

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/

Email Brent 

[email protected]

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

0:00 Intro and family

6:10 Kinds of bees 

9:35 UbeeO

11:00 Randy Oliver

12:05 Kirk Webster

12:55 Ray Butler

13:10 AFB

15:35 Mating nucs

19:03 Cells 

25:00 Fun facts 

Chris is a 3rd generation beekeeper from Canada. His family specialise in imports of packages and queens. You can find the family’s business at https://www.bartelbeeco.ca/ 

Comment or leave feedback on the episode post in the Facebook group for this podcast 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia. Email Brent at [email protected]

0:00 Family

7:59 Shipping queens internationally

12:40 Old way of beekeeping in Canada

16:10 Wintering 

18:55 Ezy Loader

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

Monika is a polish queen breeder. Together with her team they produce a staggering 35000 virgin queens for sale each year. This is a popular way to purchase queens in Poland. They also produce mated and instrumentally inseminated queens. Monika’s team uses a range of techniques that lead them to achieve incredibly high levels of efficiency in the production of quality queens.  

You can follow Monika’s work here. 

https://www.facebook.com/akademiapszczelarza

https://pasieka-szeligow.pl/

Join the podcast Facebook community group - This is a great place to comment on the episode, share some of your own tips or just say hi!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee

Podcast proudly brought to you by 

Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees (Ballarat VIC, Australia)

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/

Email Brent 

[email protected]

Special thanks to Marc Hillen and Anita Long for helping to set up this interview. Photo by Marc Hillen

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

Chris is a queen breeder and honey producer who has a family based bee business that operates between Florida and Wisconsin in the US. 

Chris's Website 
Chris's Business Facebook Page 

Join the 'Breeding the Honeybee' Facebook group to be apart of future live streams

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia.
Email Brent at [email protected]

Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/nixonqueenbees/

Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/nixonqueenbees/

YouTube: 

https://www.youtube.com/@NixonQueenBees

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

Krispn is an Apiculture Specialist at Purdue University’s Department of Entomology in West Lafayette Indiana USA. He runs a program breeding mite biting bees. Krispn is also the co-owner of a company that produces high quality instrumental insemination equipment made in the US. 

Apis Engineering's Website
Krispn's profile at Purdue University 

Join the podcast Facebook community group - This is a great place to comment on the episode, share some of your own tips or just say hi!

Podcast proudly brought to you by 

Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees (Ballarat VIC, Australia)

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

Marc is a queen breeder and uses instrumental insemination to produce every queen in his apiary. In this episode we cover some of the challenges of II and the interesting way in which they handle varroa in Norway. 

Norwegian beekeepers can purchase Marc’s queens from his website. Marc can also be contacted through his Facebook page

If you liked this episode you might want to consider joining the Facebook group for this podcast. It's a great way to leave feedback, get notifications on new episodes and participate in live sessions.

Podcast proudly brought to you by 

Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees (Ballarat VIC, Australia)

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/

Email Brent 

[email protected]

In this live podcast with Peter Czeti, we discuss the Australian Queen Bee Breeders Association AQBBA breeding plan from 2024-2029. This live session included a QandA. If you would like to hear that part you can watch is on the 'Breeding the Honeybee' Facebook group. 

If you would like to be part of the program please contact Peter on the AQBBA website. 

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia. Email Brent at [email protected]

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

This is a rerun from 'The Pollen Nation Podcast' with Matt Walker. In this episode Matt covers the issue with raising queens too early in the season.

Matt's Website

Podcast link

Facebook

YouTube

Kirk has been keeping bees for over 50 years and has not treated for varroa since 2002. His methods are inspired by his experiences with organic farming. Kirk’s approach to varroa is very hands off. He maintains the colonies by producing nucs that he overwinters. Apart from some issues resulting from modern agriculture, Kirk feels as though his beekeeping experience at present is almost the same as before he first came across varroa. 

You can read more about Kirk's work here https://kirkwebster.com/

Comment or leave feedback on the episode post in the Facebook group for this podcast 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia.
Email Brent at [email protected]
www.nixonqueenbees.com.au

3:52 Why people should raise their own queens 

4:58 Kirk’s start raising queens 

8:04 Kirk’s mating nucs 

10:50 Beekeeping at Buckfast Abbey

11:34 Feeding mating nucs 

16:18 Early experiencing with selective breeding 

19:11 Selection for varroa 

23:57 Starting the treatment free route 

26:45 Nucs that survived winter 

28:28 Survivor stock

29:29 Last treatment in 2002

31:47 Mite counts 

35:02 Open apiary 

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/

Nick Milne is a third-generation beekeeper and owner-operator of Blue Sky Queen Bees and Backyard Bees in Nelson, New Zealand. 

2:31 Working in Canada 

4:05 Kids and bees 

6:08 Getting into queen rearing 

8:21 Queen breeding in New Zealand and colour 

12:55 Pyramid structure for queen breeding 

14:50 Bringing in mated queens for genetic diversity 

16:18 Bringing in cells for genetic diversity 

16:38 Rea Butler

17:23 VSH drone lines 

19:34 Selling queen cells 

22:01 What Nick sells 

23:00 Nick’s other business - Backyard Bees 

27:04 Where to find Nick online

https://backyardbees.nz/

https://buyqueenbees.nz/

Guide to shipping queen cells as discussed in the episode 

https://www.projectapism.org/resources You’ll find the download link if you scroll down. 

Join the podcast Facebook community group - This is a great place to comment on the episode, share some of your own tips or just say hi!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee

Podcast proudly brought to you by 

Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees (Ballarat VIC, Australia)

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/