Producers of Virginia Honey & Local Queens

Johno's Easy Vap is used to treat bees for mites

I collected a swarm in my yard. I knew that I had to be mine. How marking queens helps manage your colonies Marking queens allows beekeepers to quickly confirm that the same queen is still present in the hive during inspections. This reduces stress on the colony, shortens inspection time, and helps prevent accidentally injuring the queen while searching for her. It also helps identify when a hive has requeened itself naturally, which is especially important after a swarm or d

Replacing a queen is a normal part of beekeeping. Queens can fail, become poorly mated, stop laying consistently, or simply need to be upgraded for better genetics. The challenge is not placing a new queen into a hive — the real challenge is getting the colony to accept her . If a hive does not accept a new queen, the workers will kill her. Before releasing a queen, I always recommend doing a simple acceptance check. It only takes a few minutes and can save you from losing an

Guard bees protect the hive by recognizing intruders, sounding alarms, and defending against predators. Learn how bees become guards and why they are vital to the colony.