Final Report for FNE02-408
Project Information
Note to readers, attached is the complete final report for FNE02-408
The beekeeping literature describes that queen breeding uses hives resources, ultimately reducing the honey harvest from colonies involved in the queen rearing operations. This was borne out by our experience in 2002-'03 when the project leader shifted more colony resources to queen breeding for this project. Add to this that bee forage is marginal as mentioned above and it is clear that the business plan for queen production in this type of setting cannot depend on annual significant honey crops. It is also apparent with this specific operation that, regardless of whether it is principally honey or queen producing, it requires an outlay of additional resources to work with landowners to increase bee floral forage.