Beekeepers of the Northern Shenandoah

The Prince William Regional Beekeepers Association developed a report on their research into the comparison of the survivability of colonies sourced from packages and from nucs.  In addition, they examined the advantages of  winterized queens, see below for a summary and links.  A long but easy read (20 pages) and worth your time, IMO.  An interesting outcome of the work done by the group of club members involved is that several had never made a nuc before and even more had not reared queens.  BONS could do this too if we had the interest.  We have current members that do all that and more, some with only a few years of beekeeping experience, and they could provide the core guidance.  So what do you think?  Huh?

Thanks to Karla Eisen for bring this information to my attention.  She is also a new (2011-2012) BONS member.  Karla was a principle member of the group that received the funding.

Promoting Sustainable Beekeeping Practices through local production of nucs (nucleus colonies) and local queen honeybees.   Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) 2011 Final Report 

Summary

The Prince William Regional Beekeepers Association (PWRBA) producer SARE project compared hives started from packaged bees to hives started from nucleus colonies (nucs) positively demonstrating higher survival for nuc started hives than package started hives, with survival differences more pronounced in the second year. Education and training resulted in adopting more sustainable beekeeping practices. These centered on utilizing existing colonies to produce sufficient nucs to (1) replace dead hives, (2) increase apiaries, and (3) provide starter hives for new beekeepers and association members instead of relying on commercially produced packaged bees from outside the region.  The number of nucs made available to association members in lieu of packaged bees increased dramatically over the course of the project. Queen rearing was successfully initiated.

The results of the SARE funded research can be found at: http://mysare.sare.org/mySARE/ProjectReport.aspx?do=viewRept&pn=FS08-223&y=2011&t=1