At Brighton and Lewes, we aim to produce queens from non- defensive, locally adapted, and productive colonies that can stay healthy. The bees in our teaching apiaries are managed to limit swarming and to be pleasant to work with.

We have used two or three different teaching apiaries in the Brighton and Lewes area to raise our bees. At Barcombe, Tony has perfected using the Nicot system of queen rearing, which is a non-grafting approach to queen rearing developed since 1981 by Grant F.C Gillard a small-scale commercial beekeeper. Grant often tells people, “The Nicot kit is not the perfect method to raise queens; but neither is it the only way. It is what it is, but it becomes what we make it…” He wanted better queens than he was buying from the large, commercial queen producers.

This year we have a small and perfectly formed group of members preparing for their General Husbandry Assessment at Grassroots, they need to be able to describe and show how they raise queens using either the Miller method or a Demaree for increase method.

Neither method (Miller or Demaree) use grafting tools, both use equipment already available in the apiary, that is brood boxes, bees, frames of foundation and accurate hive notes and will produce a small number of queens for use in your apiary. The Miller method has the additional skill of cutting the foundation in a way which produces single queen cells for moving into nucs and growing into full colonies by the end of the summer.

You don’t have to be studying for an assessment, but you might like to join us at either apiary to see how to raise locally adapted bees.

You will be provided with a queen rearing pack, which will include BBKA new special entitled Queen rearing, and a queen cage. There are options to purchase Managing Mini Nucs Honeymoon Flats for Honeybee Queens by Ron Brown, Practical Small Scale Queen Rearing using the Miller Method by Lynfa Davies and Some Alternative Pathways for the Hesitant Queen Rearer by Ben Harden from me, to supplement your observation at the hive or for the sessions you can’t get to.

Please Contact Jude or Buzz, our WhatsApp group or via direct message on our Facebook page for dates and further details of how to join us.