Final Report for FNE07-601

If a beekeeper could produce his own queens at twenty dollars per queen and increase production by 30% through culling the bottom third that don’t produce any honey and get his winter losses down by 10% he could increase his bottom line from a minus to a plus number where we used to be before the mite problem.

I had hoped to see a larger difference in the results between the two suppliers so I could say “Wow! Look what we proved” but I didn’t. However the purpose wasn’t to prove one supplier better or worse but to prove what five beekeepers working together can do.

I wanted to set up a procedure where local beekeepers could measure their own bees and select the best. Five beekeepers in five different micro environments were able to compare individual hives against one another and two different queen suppliers against one another. We were able to see differences between each hive, (some were significant) and able to see if there was a difference between the two queen suppliers bees. All in all I feel it was a very worth while project and hope more people will join in the future to help solve our bee problem.

• FNE07-601 Final Report