Welcome to our breeding page! We started our queen breeding program in 2024. It has been exciting to learn about the reproduction of bees. One thing we have learned is bees unlike other livestock, are sensitive to inbreeding. Our queens are open mated here at our home apiary. Our bees are a mix of pure bred & hybrids. We have kept Buckfast, Carniolans & Italian/Carniolan crosses here at our farm since we started.

We breed survivor stock from our best queens that have over wintered at least one winter here. The goal is to have hearty, productive & gentle bees that are suitable for colder climates. Our bees never leave Iowa. We evaluate our queens in the spring to see how they over wintered & how they build up as the weather warms. We are looking at brood patterns and the amount of brood compared to their peers. Also, taking into consideration the time of year and climatic conditions to determine how far along they should be in their brood rearing. We started this program in 2024 first of all because purchasing bees every year to grow is not sustainable. The second reason is to provide other beekeepers with quality queens that will produce quality bees that hold up to the conditions we have in colder climates.

It is our goal in the future to start instrumental insemination of queens so we have greater control of our breeding program.