2025 Queen Rearing Course

Beginning Mon, March 17, 2025 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT

New Life Ministries Church, Manley Chapel Rd, Fairmont, WV 26554, USA

The Marion County Beekeepers Association is pleased to be holding a comprehensive Queen Rearing course!

This intermediate class is being offered to any beekeeper with at least 3 years apiary experience who is interested in gaining a better understanding of honey bee biology and learning queen rearing methods & techniques.

This course will consist of 2 classroom sessions providing comprehensive instruction. This will then be complemented with 7 apiary sessions of hands-on practical experience. 

Capped queen cells will be available for the students at the conclusion of the course.

Dates for the classes will be:

Class Days   Apiary Days                                                                       

3/17/25 6-9 pm 5/15/25 –  6pm – Equipment assembly and prepare for  5/22

3/24/25 6-9 pm 5/22/25 –  4pm – Setup Starter Colony (1 hour) MCBA Meeting @ 7pm)

  5/29/25 – 4:30pm – Setup Timing Box for breeder queen (1 hour)

  6/1/25   –  Prepare Starter Colony to receive grafts (1 hour)

  6/2/25   –  Grafting day and insert grafts into Starter Colony (3 hrs)

  6/4/25   –  Check Grafts - Merge queen back with starter colony – Now a Finisher colony (30 min)

6/12/25 –  Date to harvest capped queen cells.  Students will be responsible for transporting the

queen cell(s) and installing them into their own mating nucs)