James you have brought up a great question and some excellent dialogue on queens.
I am a beginner beek as well and find queen rearing to be a fascinating aspect of keeping bees. I am curious to know if anyone has insight on the "big picture" of starting a rearing program? For example, I realize it is not enough just to have queens being produced in your hives, it seems to me that it is just as important to have quality drones to populate your local Drone Congregation Area (DCA).
So as an urban beekeeper, what would be an optimum hive configuration to help flood the DCA with drones thus improving the queens in my area? I know the state of North Carolina appears to be on the right track, how can we move this initiative forward and encompass all of the US?
Maybe this is a lofty goal, but if bees are in danger and the "bee movement" is gaining momentum, lets start planning to breed local queens, reduce/eliminate chemical usage, and have the bee population increase annually instead of decrease.
I am a beginner beek as well and find queen rearing to be a fascinating aspect of keeping bees. I am curious to know if anyone has insight on the "big picture" of starting a rearing program? For example, I realize it is not enough just to have queens being produced in your hives, it seems to me that it is just as important to have quality drones to populate your local Drone Congregation Area (DCA).
So as an urban beekeeper, what would be an optimum hive configuration to help flood the DCA with drones thus improving the queens in my area? I know the state of North Carolina appears to be on the right track, how can we move this initiative forward and encompass all of the US?
Maybe this is a lofty goal, but if bees are in danger and the "bee movement" is gaining momentum, lets start planning to breed local queens, reduce/eliminate chemical usage, and have the bee population increase annually instead of decrease.
