Queens: One key to honeybee sustainability

View the project final report

Commodities

• Animals: bees

Practices

• Crop Production: beekeeping, pollinator habitat, pollinator health
• Education and Training: demonstration
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity

One important facet of food sustainability is a healthy pollinator population. We will provide hands-on opportunities for students to produce local queens and colonies emphasizing this fact. They will learn that they can have an impact on their food future. This project will provide students with hands-on instruction in honeybee queen rearing from the egg stage through introduction of a new queen into a hive. It will also show students the value of local queens to hive success.

"Beekeepers who have success with new colonies tend to be those who are using locally produced queen bees installed into colonies that were produced from local bees, they that survived winter or periods of extreme stress. Any step toward localization of genetic stock and bees tends to move the beekeeper to a higher level of success." - American Bee Journal, 10/15

1. Educate students on the importance of pollinators to our very survival and the environmental factors that have an impact on pollinator survival.
2. Students hands-on involved, from egg to queen.
3. Host a community education seminar regarding pollinators and planting for pollinator sustainability.
4. Use social media throughout the project to share progress and results, and create awareness.
5. Enhance the pollinator forage here on the ranch through students planting native plants.
6. Have an article published about the project in The American Bee Journal.