Raising Honeybee Queens

Raise your own superior queens and you’ll never need to buy bees again! This fully illustrated guide makes self-sufficient beekeeping accessible to everyone:

  • Detailed, easy to understand practical advice.
  • Simple, time-tested techniques.
  • All hive models: vertical and horizontal.
  • Many methods to choose from.
  • Every step clearly explained.
  • Successful breeding, mating, and queen introduction.
  • Multiply your colonies & overwinter them in any climate.
  • Rear only a few queens ... or a thousand.
  • Natural, chemical-free options.
  • Make bee packages for yourself and for sale.
  • Produce royal jelly.
  • Over 150 full-color photographs, drawings, and diagrams.
  • Concise, well-organized guide.
If you never raised queens, this book will give you confidence to start and succeed. If you are an experienced queen breeder, you will find a slew of tips to make each step of the process even better.

The author, Gilles Fert, is a professional beekeeper and queen breeder with over 30 years experience. He has taught queen rearing all over the world and served as a consultant for numerous conservation projects on six continents.

This marvelous guide has been published in a dozen languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Italian, and more. Learn why beekeepers from around the world trust Gilles Fert’s methods to raise outstanding queens and multiply their thriving colonies.

Kirk Webster’s afterword is icing on the cake: learn keys to sustainable and profitable beekeeping from this legendary commercial treatment-free beekeeper.

Raising Honeybee Queens walks you step-by-step through every procedure, explaining everything in such a way that you’ll easily grasp every detail. Your beekeeping will never be the same after reading this book.

Raising Honeybee Queens:
An Illustrated Guide to Success

Gilles Fert, Dr. Leo Sharashkin (editor)
144 pages, 150 full-color illustrations
$29. ISBN 978-0-9842873-8-3
Deep Snow Press, 2020
Full Cover
Contents — Concise and comprehensive
Sample pages — Queen anatomy
Sample pages — Successful methods step by step
Sample pages — Simple methods for any hive model
Sample pages — Grafting tools & equipment
Sample pages — Horizontal finishers (hives to build queen cells)
Sample pages — Cloake method — Clear diagrams
Sample pages — Royal jelly — Gorgeous photography
“The best queen-rearing book in the world.”

Raising Honeybee Queens is a most wonderful resource that has helped countless beekeepers raise their own bees and become self-sufficient. Translated into a dozen languages, it is probably the best queen-rearing book in the world.”
— Dr. Nicola Bradbear, Director, Bees for Development