Queen Rearing Group

Some of our members have formed a Queen Rearing Group. Our aim is to learn all about the art of Queen Rearing so we can produce strong, healthy and resilient queens for our fellow beekeepers. We're especially dedicated to preserving the Native Irish Black Bee and supporting sustainable, local beekeeping for the future.

Queen Rearing Success - 2025 Season

We're thrilled to share some great results from this years Native Irish Honey Bee queen rearing!

In these photos you'll see Barney demonstrating grafting using the Chinese grafting tool, carefully transferring the larvae into a cell raiser frame - an essential step in raising strong, locally adapted queens.

Graft Tally - June 14th

17 grafts harvested into the incubator

16 lovely queens emerged!

A fantastic success rate; and we're now hoping for good mating weather to complete the process.

Our Queen Rearing group has made great strides this season, learning valuable skills and gaining confidence; several of our members have also reported their own successful grafts and queen emergence.

Queen Rearing

Using the Nicot Cupkit Method 2024

One of our members Barney showcasing Queen Rearing using the Nicot Cupkit Method. The slideshow features key stages of the process, including queen cells being drawn on the cell raiser frame, a marked AMM queen, and the incubator used to safely develop and hatch the queens. This method helps us produce strong, locally adapted queens to support healthy colonies and preserve the Native Irish Black Bee.

Apiary 2021

It's a hard graft! And requires some concentration, but our Queen Rearing is going well. We're looking forward to starting the NIHBS programme queen rearing after practising with our own.

Hopkins board for Queen Rearing

These will be lovely queens for nucs from a prolific gentle healthy colony.

Thomas demonstrating the Hopkins Method of Queen Rearing

To watch the whole video click here, youtu.be/JnT_FD0l2VQ