MCBA is happy to announce that we will again be holding a queen rearing class. This couse will be open for only 12 participants and is intened for beekeepers with a least 3 years of beekeeping experience.
By the end of this course each participant will end this course with a new queen for their apiary.
Cost : $75 including all materials and tools needed to rear a queen.
Course Outline
Classroom and Hands on will be conducted at:
New Life Ministries – 617 Manley Chapel Road, Fairmont WV
Instructional and Hands-On (classroom) (3 sessions)
3/2/26– 2.5 hrs (6 – 8:30pm)
3/9/26 – 2.5hrs (6 – 8:30pm)
3/16/26 – 2.5hrs (6 – 8:30pm)
This schedule can be shifted slightly but some of these dates are absolute if we want the best queens
5/14/26 – Thursday - 6pm – Equipment assembly and prepare for 5/22/26
5/21/26 - Thursday – 5pm - Setup Starter Colony (1 hour)
5/27/26 – Wednesday – 5pm - Setup Timing Box for breeder queen (1 hour)
5/30/26 – Saturday – 1pm - Prepare Starter Colony to receive grafts (1 hour)
5/31/26 – Sunday – 2pm - Grafting day and insert grafts into Starter Colony (3 hrs)
6/2/26 – Tuesday – Check Grafts - Merge queen back with starter colony – Now a Finisher colony (1 hour)
6/6/26 – 6/10/26 – Queen cells capped and can move to mating nucs. 6/10/26 - will probably be the best day. – (~30 min Students will be responsible for transporting the queen cell(s) and installing them into their own mating nucs)
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Intent of Course – Up to 12 students
Basic understanding of Queen Rearing
Include classroom and field/apiary instruction
Produce at least 20 capped queen cell (1 per student) using different queen rearing methodologies.
Course Content (Classroom and hand-on)
Honeybee biology
Queen Rearing methods/techniques
Stock Selection
Tools and Equipment
Starter and finisher hives
Mating yards
Finding, Catching, Handling, Marking queens
Record Keeping
Queen Cell Transportation
Course Objectives
Better understanding of honey bee biology
Queen rearing manual – 1 per student
Queen Rearing tool – 1 Chinese Grafting tool per student
At least one capped Q-Cell
Course Prerequisite – Beekeeper for at least 3 years
Basic knowledge of honey bee biology
Can identify Honey bees (Drones, Queen, Workers)
Can identify hive components such as: (eggs, Larva, sealed brood (drone, worker, and queen), honey, pollen)