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 brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au

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

brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au

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 brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au

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 brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au
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/

Rob and Ron have been working together in the West Australian bee industry for many years. Together they run a breeding program using instrumental insemination which Ron learnt from Gretchen Wheen and Sue Cobey. In this episode we discuss bee breeding, the Rottnest program, Joe Horner’s drone rearing and the story of the Karri tree, which Rob is writing a book about.

1:30 When Rob and Ron started working together

3:14 Rottnest breeding program

5:14 Gretchen Wheen and Mathilde 'Tilly' Kühnert

7:14 When Ron Learnt Instrumental insemination

7:52 Sue Cobey visits Australia in 2009

9:33 Challenges of Instrumental insemination

12:00 Joe Horner’s drone rearing system

14:02 Drone drift

15:37 Queens you can get from Rob and Ron

19:20 Rob’s book on the Karri forest in Western Australia

22:29 Baiting

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

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Record a soundbite about your queen rearing here

https://nixonqueenbees.com.au/pages/podcast

This podcast is proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees in Ballarat Australia. Email Brent at brent@nixonqueenbees.com.au

Episode Music

https://audionautix.com/