Not only is our honey is local (to Bergen County, NJ), we raise our bees right here in Bergen County, NJ too.
We go to great lengths to ensure we raise all of our colonies as local as we can. We take care of their health and nutrition. We put in lot of hard work in ensuring the colonies have best chance at survival through Jersey winters.
Our hard work paid off and the colonies survived yet another winter. 2019 spring is here and it is time for Honey Bee colonies to expand at a rapid rate. This is also time for us to raise our very own local queens so we can continue expanding our apiary with our local queens.
Queen rearing is an elaborate, intricate and time consuming process. However, it is also very satisfying to see our work come to fruition and the bees feed the queen grafts ample amount of royal jelly.
Attached is the picture of our first batch of queen cells. Notice how each queen cup (platic cell) has good amount of white substance. The white substance is the royal jelly mix that nurse bees have put in for queen larvae to feed on.
The queen cells are still open in this picture. In about a week, they will be capped (closed) enabling the queen larvae to pupate and turn into adults.