Episodes
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39) Raf Augustyn (NZ)
Raf is a queen breeder based in New Zealand. He makes his own mating nucs that are based on the sizes used in Europe. 0:45 Mating Nuc Design 3:15 Using mating nucs as cell raisers 3:30 Using mating nucs for breeder queens 3:47 Using mating nucs as queen banks 3:57 Fixing failing mating nucs 4:30...
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38) Amy Dunn (NZ)
Amy is a queen breeder. Her business is called Kereru Queen bees, which she runs with her two sisters and their husbands. The business was originally started by Amy’s father John over 40 years ago. The business is based in Kereru, a small farming district 60 km's southwest from Napier/Hastings on...
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37) Chris Bartel (CA)
Chris is a 3rd generation beekeeper from Canada. His family specialise in imports of packages and queens. You can find the family’s business at https://www.bartelbeeco.ca/ Comment or leave feedback on the episode post in the Facebook group for this podcast...
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36) Monika Leleń (PL)
Monika is a polish queen breeder. Together with her team they produce a staggering 35000 virgin queens for sale each year. This is a popular way to purchase queens in Poland. They also produce mated and instrumentally inseminated queens. Monika’s team uses a range of techniques that lead them to...
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35) Chris Werner (US)
Chris is a queen breeder and honey producer who has a family based bee business that operates between Florida and Wisconsin in the US. Chris's Website Chris's Business Facebook Page Join the 'Breeding the Honeybee' Facebook group to be apart of future live streams This podcast is proudly brought…
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34) Krispn Given (US)
Krispn is an Apiculture Specialist at Purdue University’s Department of Entomology in West Lafayette Indiana USA. He runs a program breeding mite biting bees. Krispn is also the co-owner of a company that produces high quality instrumental insemination equipment made in the US. Apis Engineering's...
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33) Marc Hillen (NO)
Marc is a queen breeder and uses instrumental insemination to produce every queen in his apiary. In this episode we cover some of the challenges of II and the interesting way in which they handle varroa in Norway. Norwegian beekeepers can purchase Marc’s queens from his website. Marc can also be...
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32) AQBBA Breeding Program 2024-29
In this live podcast with Peter Czeti, we discuss the Australian Queen Bee Breeders Association AQBBA breeding plan from 2024-2029. This live session included a QandA. If you would like to hear that part you can watch is on the 'Breeding the Honeybee' Facebook group. If you would like to be part…
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31) Rerun of the Pollen Nation Podcast (US)
This is a rerun from 'The Pollen Nation Podcast' with Matt Walker. In this episode Matt covers the issue with raising queens too early in the season. Matt's Website Podcast link Facebook YouTube
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30) Kirk Webster (US)
Kirk has been keeping bees for over 50 years and has not treated for varroa since 2002. His methods are inspired by his experiences with organic farming. Kirk’s approach to varroa is very hands off. He maintains the colonies by producing nucs that he overwinters. Apart from some issues resulting...
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29) Nick Milne (NZ)
Nick Milne is a third-generation beekeeper and owner-operator of Blue Sky Queen Bees and Backyard Bees in Nelson, New Zealand. 2:31 Working in Canada 4:05 Kids and bees 6:08 Getting into queen rearing 8:21 Queen breeding in New Zealand and colour 12:55 Pyramid structure for queen breeding 14:50...
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28) Ron Clarke and Rob Manning (AU)
Rob and Ron have been working together in the West Australian bee industry for many years. Together they run a breeding program using instrumental insemination which Ron learnt from Gretchen Wheen and Sue Cobey. In this episode we discuss bee breeding, the Rottnest program, Joe Horner’s drone...
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27) Cory Stevens (US)
Cory Stevens is a VSH queen breeder from Missouri, USA. He has a business called Steven’s Bee Company which offers AI VSH breeder queens, VSH virgin queens and raw honey free of miticides and antibiotics. Cory's Website and Facebook https://www.stevensbeeco.com/...
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26) Mary Lacksen (US)
Mary is in Sparta Georgia and has a business called BeeCo Apiaries. Together with her daughter, Mary sells honey, nucs and small scale locally mated queens. 2:17 Getting into queen rearing 5:25 Lines of queens Mary uses 7:30 Survivor stock 8:15 Cell raising method 11:30 Mating nucs 13:30 Advice…
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25) Shibu Raj (US)
Shibu is a Queen breeder in Columbia Tennessee. He sells queens, nucs and AI equipment, which he also offers training for. At the time of releasing this episode Shibu had just had a tornado go through his property and cause a lot of destruction. Below is the link to the gofundme which you can...
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24) Brandon Michael Simmons (US)
Brandon is a queen breeder and the 3rd generation beekeeper from North Carolina USA. His business, Foothill Farm and Apiary offers nucs, production queens and breeders. In this episode Brandon tells us what it was like starting a breeding program with artificial insemination. 0:00 Introduction…
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23) Willie Robson (UK)
Willie Robson is the biggest keeper of the old English black bee in the world. His family business is Chain Bridge Honey Farm, which was established in 1948 by Willie’s father. Willie has been working in the business since 1962 and now works alongside his wife and children. Chain Bridge Honey…
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22) Brad Hogg (CA)
Brad is a Canadian honey producer. He raises many of his own queens and makes the majority of his hardware. You can find Brad online at Faith Apiaries. Make sure to check out his YouTube channel where he does instructional videos and weekly vlogs. 6:00 Brad’s apiary setup 6:50 2 queen systems…
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21) Ian Steppler (CA)
Ian Steppler is a Canadian beekeeper who breeds his own line of bees. Ian has unique cell raising and mating nuc styles that are well suited to short season commercial beekeeping. In this episode Ian goes into his cell raising process and mating nucs as well as explaining why he raises his own...
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20) Laurence Edwards (UK)
Laurence Edwards is a beekeeper based in Northern Wales. He runs a business called ‘Black Mountain Honey’ which produces honey, nucs and queens as well as other services. https://www.blackmountainhoney.co.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/@BlackMountainHoney 0:46 YouTubing 4:00 Buckfast and AMM 6:51...
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19) Leigh Slater (AU)
Leigh Slater is a queen breeder and honey producer in Tasmania, Australia. For 63 years Leigh has been preserving a pure strain of the old English black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera). Back in the 70s Leigh aided beekeepers in England by helping them reestablish the line by sending queens from…
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18) Terry Meakin (IE)
Terry has been keeping bees in Ireland since he was 7 years old and has over 30 years experience. Early in his career he spent time working with Peter Donovan at Buckfast Abbey, learning the methods of Brother Adam. Terry has a business called Wicklow Bees and Honey which provides queens, nucs…
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17) Dan Long (US)
Dan Long has a business making 3D printed queen cages and other beekeeping applications. Dan’s business is called EZPZ. His main product is a cage suitable for the JZBZ cell cup. 4:00 Dan’s business 4:30 JZBZ system 5:10 First 3D printer 5:35 First attempt at making cages 6:07 Queen introduction...
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16) Tucka Saville (US)
Tucka Saville lives in Florida, USA. She raises queens, provides classes for queen catching and grafting and is a common public speaker at bee events and clubs. Her business can be found on Instagram @tucka bee. 1:20 What a Comfort hive is 2:48 Feeding 3:10 Comparison to Warre hives 3:37 Working...
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15) Varroa and VSH Australia
Varroa has been detected in the almond pollination in Australia. In this episode I interview Matt Petersen, Richard Sims and Corinne Jordan about Varroa and VSH. The interviews that are in this episode were recorded on the 1st and 2nd of September 2023. It's likely that the situation will change...
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14) Paul Densem (NZ)
Paul Densem is a queen breeder based south-east of Christchurch in the Port Hills of Banks Peninsula New Zealand. Paul has created his own line of bees descending swarms that he caught when he first started beekeeping. Paul’s line of Italian bees have been selectively bred to produce high yields…
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13) Paul Rafosala (PH)
Did you know that in the Philippines some people run full AI apiaries? Hear all about that and other great stuff in this episode with Paul Rafosala. Paul is part of a family business called Rafosala Bee Farm, based in Tagum, Philippines. Paul’s business produces queens, supplies pollination...
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12) Bees with Ben
This is kind of a bonus episode in which Brent Nixon was interviewed by Ben Moore, a very well known Australian beekeeper, who also has a podcast. Ben's Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/bees-with-ben/id1512755530 Ben's Website www.bensbees.com.au Facebook...
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11) Mauritz Verster (ZA)
Mauritz is a beekeeper from South Africa who works with Apis mellifera scutellata, aka, the killer bee, aka, the Africanized honey bee, aka, the East African lowland honey bee. These bees are native to the lower parts of Africa and are well known for their honey gathering ability and extreme...
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10) Corinne Jordan (AU)
Corinne Jordan operates the bee lady apiaries in Brisbane Australia. She specialises in Italian bees. Recently Corrine has started beegenetics.com.au, a program that will focus on breeding bees for varroa resistance in Australia. 4:35 - Leading up to Varroa 5:16 - Liquid nitrogen testing 6:30 -...
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9) John Donovan (UK)
Peter Donovan started working at Buckfast Abbey in 1939 when he was only 12 years old. Peter worked with Brother Adam during his teenage years and then returned to Buckfast in 1972 and remained there until 2004. He is said to be the person who knew Brother Adam the best. Peter kept bees with a...
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8) Duncan Simmons (UK)
Duncan owns and runs Simmons Apiaries, a business based in Trematon in south west England. Duncan has been keeping bees for over 50 years and for 35 years as a professional. He produces queens, honey, offers training and sells equipment for dealing with varroa. 0:56 - Duncan tells a funny...
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7) John Jacobs (US)
John is a queen breeder from Rogue River, Oregon, USA. He has a business called Old Sol Apiaries. Starting in 1997 with a degree in Biology, John’s goal has been to produce productive, hearty, pest and disease tolerant bees that are also a pleasure to work with. John prides himself on selling…
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6) Aidan Wing (US)
Aidan owns and runs Wings of Nature, a company based in San Mateo County, California, USA, that produces honey, nucs, queens and provides education and pollination services. Aidan’s line of queens has been sourced partly from his surrounding area, preserving locally adapted traits. 0:45 How Aidan...
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5) Adam Finkelstein (US)
Adam is a VSH queen breeder. He has been breeding queen bees since the late 80s. Together with his wife, Kelly, who he met in Entomology class at university, they run a business called VP queen bees which is based in Iva, South Carolina, USA and specialises in the production of VSH breeder…
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4) Rae Butler (NZ)
Rae is a VSH (Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) specialist queen breeder from New Zealand. She operates the Bee Smart Breeding program which produces VSH bees. Rae has spent time with VSH breeding programmes in Baton Rouge, Arista Bee Research in the Netherlands and the Bee Informed Partnership based in...
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3) Laurie Cowen (AU)
Laurie is well known in Tasmania, Australia for mentoring new beekeepers and producing nucleus colonies and queen cells. Listeners from Tasmania would know Laurie from his work in the Tasmanian Junior beekeeping club and with sisters hives Australia. Join the podcast facebook community group...
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2) John Berry (NZ)
John is part of the Berry family, which is a very big name in the New Zealand beekeeping industry. The Berry family own Arataki Honey, a large honey packing company located in Hawke Bay on the eastern side of the north island. At certain times in the history of this company the Berry family have...
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1) Buckfast Abbey (UK)
In this episode I talk briefly about the life of Brother Adam and I also speak to the head of bees at Buckfast Abbey, Clare Densley, about what Buckfast Abbey is up to with the bees these days. Join the podcast facebook community group www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee Podcast proudly...
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Introduction
Join the podcast Facebook community group www.facebook.com/groups/breedingthehoneybee Podcast proudly brought to you by Brent Nixon at Nixon Queen Bees Email - [email protected] Instagram: www.instagram.com/nixonqueenbees/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/nixonqueenbees/ TikTok:...