ADVERTISING FEATURE: QUEEN BREEDERS
It’s fast getting to that time of year again, when hives are being opened for the first time coming out of winter. Many beekeeping tasks await in the next few months, but prime among them is ensuring the queen at the heart of each colony is fit to perform.
With that in mind, we thought it prudent to take this time in late-winter/early spring to create a space where those at the helm of some of New Zealand’s leading breeding programmes can provide further details to inform what each of their businesses is about. Whether it is the biology and mechanics of the breeding programmes themselves, the people calling the shots, or what’s on offer, it’s all good information for beekeepers to consider if they are ‘in the market’ for queens, cells, or nucs.
Come spring there can be a lot of people looking to sell queens, all of varying levels of dedication, skill, experience and expertise. So, we hope this feature can help potential buyers make informed choices around what they are getting from a breeding programme, and who they are dealing with.
Afterall, successful beekeeping is not just about getting the hive queen-right, but finding the right queen for your needs.
*This is an advertising feature – all copy, advertising and text, is supplied by the advertisers.
Mana Queen – Marlborough
While Mana Queen has been in existence since 2015, owner Raf Augustyn has been beekeeping for nearly quarter of a century. After its beginnings as a small experimental apiary, by 2018 Mana Queen had become a second income business and then a stand-alone queen breeding operation by 2022.
Augustyn started beekeeping in his homeland of Poland in 2000. Over the next two decades-plus his extensive training has covered theory – graduating as a Technician Apiarist from Apiculture School in Poland – and then a vast practical learning journey.
“I spent a decade traveling through several continental and island countries around the world to gain experience working with bees in distinct climatic conditions and diverse operations, targeting different beekeeping outcomes. These include my home country, Poland, plus Germany, Scotland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, USA, Canada, Thailand, and New Zealand,” Augustyn explains.
Hawaii, home of the world’s biggest queen breeding operations, is where the idea of Mana Queen was born.
“While working for one of the giants of queen breeding world-wide, I dreamed of one day having my own queen breeding station somewhere in Polynesia. The significance of the mana concept in Hawaiian and Māori culture felt felicitous to my breeding and stock improvement endeavours, so it stuck in my head.”
Coming to New Zealand in 2010, Augustyn worked for Comvita in Northland, Wairarapa, and established a Waikato queen unit, managing it for five years, then in 2018 he moved to the South Island to set up a honey operation and queen unit for King Honey. Soon after the dream of Mana Queen was realised.
What Does Mana Queen Stand For?
Now Mana Queen runs 2000 mating nucs in Marlborough and Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, producing top performing open-mated queens from strong and genetically diverse stock. The breeding program has a focus on disease resistance and mite tolerance. Foundation stock has been accumulated over the years through sourcing and selection of outstanding Ligustica queens from South and North Islands. Different control groups are run for the selection of the next generation of breeder queens, achieved through comparative testing, assessment of behavioural traits and performance evaluation.
The primary and largest control group encompasses one-thousand units assessed for hygienic behaviour. The best performing queens are tested with Harbo assay to determine if hygienic behaviour they express is in respect to varroa resistance. This coming spring Mana Queen will be the first breeding operation in New Zealand to incorporate into their selection process UbeeO – a groundbreaking new tool designed to accurately predict colony abilities to self-control mites and disease.
Great attention is also directed at drone stock, to provide reproductive quality to reared queens. As a control group they also present the opportunity for evaluation of characteristics like over wintering abilities, colony growth, swarming tendencies and honey production.
Both control groups are maintained according to organic principles and from spring 2024 Mana Queen is offering certified organic queens, bred and mated in separate BioGro accredited nucs.
Survival of the Fittest
“During the honey flow I move drone stock hives and some mating nucs to Arapawa Island to produce certified organic honey and to mate a generation of queens within my own genetic pool. Last summer, in an isolated part of the island with support from Arapawa Gold and dedicated landowners, I established another control group. In this remote place, far from managed colonies, 100 units will be exposed to natural selection ‘survival of the fittest’. Bees that successfully overwinter in the presence of mites, with no treatments, will become hardier with each new generation that passes this strong selection pressure, eventually resulting in robust, reliable, genetic material adopted to harsh coastal conditions with unpredictable weather,” Augustyn explains.
“Watch this space, because at this point I do plan to move more mating units to Arapawa to mate queens for distribution within the apiculture industry.”
The Mana Queen owner is excited for the future of the open-mated breeding programme and where it might help take the industry,
“While instrumental insemination can achieve varroa resistance a lot faster, as it is a very effective tool for reproductive control in genetic selection, it does not result in queens of superior genetic quality for commercial purposes,” he says, adding, “A professionally maintained, geographically isolated, natural mating site provides a powerful alternative on the way to breed varroa resistance into a population of bees. And more beyond…”
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Betta Bees Research – Otago
Betta Bees Research’s breeding programme comes with a difference. Largely utilising instrumental insemination of their queens, they provide queens for the purposing of entering beekeepers’ breeding programmes as the breeding stock on which they can expand.
They are New Zealand’s premier producer of Instrumentally Inseminated Italian type breeder queens.
Betta Bees Research has now been in operation for 20 years, after South Island beekeepers submitted their best queens to begin the programme back in 2004. They influence the genetic makeup of around 30% of New Zealand’s bee stocks.
In December 2022 the company was sold to Honeybee Breeding NZ Ltd, owned by Frans Laas and Rob Waddell, and now runs a new business model. Instrumentally inseminated breeder queens are now available to all beekeepers rather than being only available to the old company’s shareholder base. The breeding programme still runs out of the Invermay Agricultural Research Centre near Dunedin and has ready access to the various genetic and diagnostic facilities close to their office.
Laas says they are continuing the breeding programme with some significant operational changes to streamline the evaluation programme and provide a more diverse range of breeder queen options.
“Our queens are selected for gentleness, good brood patterns and good spring growth rates as well as hygienic behaviour and reduced varroa mite growth rates. We also select on a uniform Italian type appearance with any queens producing dark drones and very stripey workers being eliminated from the final selection,” Laas explains.
“Now that we have stabilised the breeding programme, we will be expanding our varroa resistance selection process in collaboration with a number of other entities. Over time this will speed up the selection process for varroa resistance and significantly impede mite growth rates and help in reducing the requirement for the increasingly expensive chemical inputs.”
Three different grades of queens are offered for sale by Betta Bees. Gold queens are instrumentally inseminated, ensuring the best genetics of the breeding programme. Silver queens are queens selected from the top of the programme and open mated alongside the top drone hives. Bronze queens are bred from the top queens, and open mated alongside a larger pool of Betta Bees drone hives.
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Kereru Queen Bees Ltd – Hawke’s Bay
Nestled in the foothills of the Ruahine Ranges, three sisters and their families operate a queen breeding programme that has been AFB free for nearly 40 years – Kereru Queen Bees.
Their Bee Team manages 1000 hives in Kereru, rural Hawke’s Bay, including over 100 specialised breeders and cell raisers. Breeder queens are selected for desirable traits such as top honey production, hygienic behaviour, friendly temperament, and overwintering success
“Our goal is to advance these genetics even further by evaluating our best performing queens for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene using methods refined by Rae Butler," says apiary manager Amy Dunn.
Before grafting, larvae are assessed for optimal age and royal jelly, and before sale every queen cell is checked for virgin size and quality. Large mating nucs are used in which each queen can lay up to nine standard ¾ depth brood frames.
“We prefer using larger nucs” Dunn explains, “because we can more accurately assess laying patterns, brood quality and hive health. We use supers on our mating nucs so excess honey can be harvested, while also leaving good stores for them to overwinter strongly.”
Queens are left in their hives for at least four weeks so their capped brood can be examined before sale.
Building upon the legacy of their father John Dobson - creator and manufacturer of the iconic Carricell portable incubator - the sustainability of Kereru Queen Bees Ltd stems from the high quality of their queens, customer satisfaction and word of mouth.
“We don’t have a website and generally don’t advertise. This is our first time in Apiarist’s Advocate and we’re excited to be involved in the focus on Queen Breeders!”
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Lion Apiaries – Auckland
Lion Apiaries is currently taking orders for over-wintered queens, to ship during September, and new season’s spring queens from October 1.
Owner Dallas Russ says their queen rearing team is 100% focused on producing quality, open-mated, Italian queens all season long.
“Our queens lay good, healthy brood. We maintain diversity in genetics and select for pleasant natured bees that build up strong beehives and work hard,” Russ explains.
Beekeepers should feel free to plan in advance and place orders with confidence in Lion Apiaries 10+ years’ experience of queen production."I look forward to working with you to supply the queens you need, when you need them," Russ says.
Professional Queen Producers. Reliable Service. Trustworthy Partners.
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Pyramid Apiaries – Marlborough
Performance, Reliability and Commitment are the three qualities that drive Pyramid Apiaries breeding programme in Marlborough, supplying mated and virgin queens throughout New Zealand and queen cells and nucs for locals.
Performance
Performance of queens is key, with selection of breeding queens coming from the top performing honey producers which then over-winter strongly. Like most breeding programmes, hives with poor temperament are ruled out. Italian-type bees are sought by selecting on colour where possible, such as ruling out hives with a high proportion of black drones. However, attributes that are more likely to boost productivity are prioritised over colour, per-say.
“The laying ability of our mated queens is also closely assessed, with all of our queens mated in full-depth units which provide good opportunity to evaluate their production ability before being caged and supplied to beekeepers,” owner Laura Dawkins says.
Reliability
Pyramid Apiaries goal is not to be the biggest supplier of queens to the industry, but the most reliable.
“We work with some regular core clients to provide them with queens, cells or nucs and we really enjoy effectively being their business’s queen breeding unit. We take this job seriously, doing our best to supply orders when the beekeepers need them. Communication is key, and understanding and working in with our fellow beekeepers is hugely motivating for us,” Dawkins says.
Commitment
Pyramid Apiaries work is almost all carried out by husband and wife owners Patrick and Laura, with casual staff, albeit skilled and experienced, used only infrequently.
“We find the whole process of running a breeding programme enjoyable, so are committed to ensuring the end results – the queens, the cells, the nucs – are top-notch.”
While many of the Pyramid mated queens are booked out in spring, there is still opportunity for beekeepers to snap some up, especially if they pre-order. Virgin queens are also available all season.
“We have a core group we supply, but also really enjoy talking with any new beekeepers to see if the queens we have on offer suit their needs,” Dawkins says, adding “those beekeepers should reach out – we would love to have that conversation.”
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NZ Queen Bees – Northland
At NZ Queen Bees we are experts in the delicate process of breeding the best quality queens. From our base in the far north, we specialize in producing high-quality, open mated queens for beekeeping operations, large and small, all over New Zealand. Using our vast experience, attention to detail and disciplined beekeeping practices, we excel at supplying New Zealand beekeepers with high performing mated queens.
Our queens are skilfully grafted from a diverse supply of the country’s leading artificially inseminated breeder stock, ensuring healthy and productive colonies. Northland’s mild climate and the expertly placed mating yards aid in strong matings with a high drone supply. All queens are professionally graded on appearance, laying quality and brood pattern, before being marked with a bright dot and caged for transport.
NZ Queen Bees have been supplying beekeepers since 2022, and are owned and led by Ben Kerr, a queen breeder with eight years’ experience in commercial operations.
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Adam’s Gold – Canterbury
At Adams Gold we breed well rounded, strong, healthy queens resulting in good brood build, who are gentle to work, and have a good honey yield.
Our bee stock genetics are from AI Gold Better Bees breeder queens. We also have VSH genetics in our bees. This involves selective breeding involving a trait that helps fight against varroa in the hive.
We have over 13 years’ experience in commercial beekeeping throughout New Zealand. As a family owned and operated queen breeding business, we have a real passion and are incredibly dedicated to beekeeping.
We overnight courier our queens throughout New Zealand (minimum order of two) and, with additional ventilation, we overnight courier our five frame nucs all over the country also. Courier for North Island $71, for South Island $15-$30 – depending on your location.
-Jacob & Annemarieke Adams
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