Beekeepers of the Northern Shenandoah

From their five bee yards in Frederick County, Rausch and Finkelstein run a business called VP Queen Bees, which supplies breeder queens to producers. The producers, in turn, propagate daughter queens by the thousands and sell them to commercial beekeepers and backyard hobbyists for about $30 each. Finkelstein believes he is close to achieving his primary aim of creating a bee that can survive with just basic husbandry. He hasn’t medicated his hives in 14 years. Read the rest of this entry »