Buzzing with Success: Rearing Queens in the Bee Cube®!

Herman Van Reekum
9 hours ago
2 min read

This summer, we've been absolutely thrilled with the success of our queen rearing operation right inside one of our Bee Cubes®. It's been an incredibly effective platform, and we owe a huge part of this success to the dedicated husband-and-wife team, Natalia and Nazar Pukshyn, from Ukraine.

Natalia and Nazar bring a wealth of experience to our team. Nazar, a veterinarian in Ukraine, and Natalia worked together as commercial beekeepers in both Ukraine and Poland, even managing a queen-rearing operation before joining us in Canada. Their expertise has been invaluable!

The Bee Cube®: A Royal Nursery

The Bee Cube® has proven to be an ideal environment for nurturing our future queens. With eight hives housed inside, we can maintain the perfect conditions for the queen larvae to mature. The comfortable and dry interior of the Bee Cube® also features a dedicated desk, providing Natalia with an excellent space for grafting. Nazar has even been able to utilize the desk for some of his artificial insemination work. No matter the weather outside, the temperature inside the Bee Cube® is always just right for our Queens.

Your Source for Healthy New Queens

We're excited to announce that we'll have a continuous supply of marked queens available throughout the summer!

Virgin Queens: $15
Mated Queens: $50

In addition to our queens, we're also building nucs with our queens for both our own use and for sale to the public. Our nucs are available for $350.

Purchase Now

Why Introduce a New Queen Now?

As the season progresses, you might be wondering why now is a good time to consider a new queen. Here are a few compelling reasons:

Replace a Failing Queen: By this point in the season, you'll have a clear understanding of your colonies' health. As you begin to prepare for winter, replacing an underperforming or failing queen can significantly boost your colony's chances of survival.
Create a Support Colony: Nazar has introduced us to an intriguing concept: using a nuc to support a main colony as a strategic way to prepare for winter. We'll be diving deeper into this fascinating process in a future blog post!
Overwinter Nucs: It's entirely possible to successfully overwinter nucs, especially those with a strong, new queen. This can be a great way to expand your apiary for the following season.