Our illustrious beekeeping associate and friend Resa will be selling her exquisite goats milks and beeswax soaps and salves and her painted silk scarves along with our honey at the following spring events:

Starting Saturday, May 12th and every Saturday from 7am-12pom at the Tri- County farmers market in Pecos.

Every Sunday at The Santa Fe Railyard Artisans’ Market at Farmers market pavilion from 10am-4pm

June 2-3rd at the Spring Festival at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas 10am-4pm

We will add events as we sign up to vend- honey willing!

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We are hella busy at this time of year- we have grafts to conduct, nucleus hives to stock, emerging virgin queens to get into new homes, hives to move for pollination and the list goes on!

If you are trying to reach us- either via phone or email, please be aware that turnaround for communication may take up to a week.

As a two person op with two small children, we are buzzing around like worker bees. We appreciate everyone’s patience:)

Thanks-
M&M- ZQB

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This photo album generated with Smilebox

In Her Majesty’s Chambers: Intro to Queen Rearing Workshop
Conducted by Zia Queenbee Co. at home farm in Truchas, NM
8300 feet elevation in southern Rocky Mountains

WHEN: July 14-15th
COST: $200 includes manual, grafting tool, practice cell cups, live queencells to take home and instruction. Workshop overviews introductory issues pertaining to rearing One’s own queenbees including:

* Selection of breeders & establishment of gene pool
* Establishing and maintaining cell-builders
* Learning to graft appropriate larvae
* Selection and placement of drone supports
* Creation of Mating Nucs
*Establishment of mating zones/apiaries,
* Harvesting of mated queens

This is a hands-on course demonstrating each step of the process of rearing queens:
From the art of grafting To mature harvest.

For more info call Tel: 505/929-8080 Or email: ziaqueenbees@hotmail.com

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Spring is getting underway here in the northern Rio Grande Valleys with stone fruit orchards blooming. Up here at our home farm at 8300 feet we had fresh wet snow just last week. But dandelions are out and our apricot tree and currants are peaking with visits from several different native bees and butterflies.

Our first graft of the season from 2 different 2 year old breeders was conducted on April 16th- we will be placing these ripe cocoons into mating nucs this weekend.

This puts first round of fresh season nucs and queens ready for our review come latter half of May.

We have weekly batches of virgin queenbees available. They are installed same as mated queens into a queenless hive of bees. Virgins will mate out with your area drones. We recommend waiting minimum 3 weeks post installation before revising/disturbing.

We retrieved our overwintered nucs from downstate this past weekend- we took them down in February to begin to build up on desert poppey, mustard and fruit tree bloom. We lost a few more than we anticipated but will be making contact with those who have already placed reservations at the end of this week to begin scheduling pick ups.

I’ll get some photos uploaded shortly! The bloom is looking nice…..all we need is some more rain (or snow)!

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We have officially hung up on Windstream Telephone co.
Their service is horrible and while they have told me numerous times in the past they will work with us on the issues, they haven’t. So…we are done with them.

Unfortunately, cell reception in our mountain range is hit and miss. Our area specifically doesn’t always get a clear signal.

But! We have a solution and will be installing a booster so that we can get better reception.

So, if you need to get a hold of us via phone- try our work cell number: 505/929-8080

Email is still the easiest way to get a hold of us as it is via satellite.

We apologize for any confusion or loss of communication.
We continue to remain of service to beekeepers and of course, the bees.

Thank you-
Melanie & Mark
Zia Queenbee Co.

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We have just completed our early spring check on overwintered nucs.
We have decided to give them another couple of weeks to beef up before scheduling pick ups.

We will make contact with those who have made reservations when we are ready to schedule pick ups.

Pick ups are scheduled for early morning or near sundown so as to seal foragers in.

Questions- email us at ziaqueenbees@hotmail.com

Thanks-

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2012 Spring Sting flyer
We are pleased to once again help produce this year’s

3rd Annual Northern New Mexico Rocky Mountain Sweet Spring Sting

                 – A Symposium on Pollinator and Human Health-

taking place April 14th in Santa Fe, New Mexico at Santa Fe Greenhouses.*

Free to Everyone donations accepted. Suggested Donation $10-15 No one will be turned away. Presentations starting at 10am-3:30 pm

Agenda:
9am Doors Open
10am Opening/Welcome
10:05-10:50 Dr. Ron Fessenden, author of The Honey Revolution
10:50-11:35 Miguel Sarria, I Chi Kung with Bee Therapy for the Common Person (Apitherapy)
11:35-11:45 break; door prizes
11:45-12:30 Jule McTyre with US Fish & Wilflife and Diverse NM Pollinators
12:30-1:15 LUNCH break
1:15-2:00 Jodi Hedderig of City of Albuquerque Open Space Bee Program
2:00-2:45 Marygael Meister of DenverBee with Urban Beekeeping Education Efforts and Adventures
2:45-3:30 Mark Spitzig of Zia Queenbee Co. with Natural Strategies for Maintaining Health in Small Apiaries
3:30 Closing

*http://www.santafegreenhouses.com/

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 Hello to all-

            We have the good fortune to have an opportunity to spend some time with Mark and Melanie who are very experienced full time beekeepers and also raise queens. http://www.ziaqueenbees.com/who.htm  Weather will play a controlling role in this event and if it cooperates our schedule will be as follows:

     Saturday morning, March 24, 9:30 to 12:30 we will have a general bee health and management session—cost $30.00

     Saturday afternoon, March 24, 1:30 to 4:30 we will have an advanced techniques including queen raising session with hives weather permitting—cost $40.00—Or $60 for the whole day 

To attend the above sessions, one must be registered and paid in advance.  Please contact me at rh@hyderanches.com

 <mailto:rh@hyderanches.com> and the spots availability are limited.

These classes will be in Corte Madera.

Regards,

Richard

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We have stopped taking reservations for both Langstroth and top bar nucleus colonies for this 2012 season.

Once we get started and spring weather stabilizes, we will be  able to confirm our count of overwintered hives. As  we begin rearing, we will be better able to assess if our bees might be able to accomodate more splits.

If so- we’ll post it up on our blog, first come first served.

Thanks and here’s to an awesome impending spring!!!

Dream, Visualize, Manifest Bloom!!!

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Several friends forwarded us this wonderful video of diverse pollinators. The cinematography is surreal. NJoy.

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/xHkq1edcbk4?rel=0

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I’ve been invited to share a little about survivor stock queen honeybee breeding and regional sustainability of bee stewardship with Laurie Lange of the NM Bee Collaborative  on Albuquerque Public Radio Station- KUNM 89.9FM. It will stream live on Women’s Focus on Saturday, February 25th, 2012. The program will begin at noon and the bee segment will occur at 1pm mountain time zone.

Melanie

Visit www.kunm.org

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Our pricing will remain the same as last year.

 http://ziaqueenbees.com/ZQBprices2012.pdf

NUCS:  We will have fresh season Langstroth nucs and top bar nucs* beginning in late May-early June. We are sold out of our Early Season Overwintered Starter Nucleus Colonies.

QUEENS: We have limited availability of our Enchanted Empress Breeder Companion Queens (overwintered, tested survivor queens) starting in late March.

We will have fresh season production queens starting in late May.

To place a reservation, send us an email ziaqueenbees@hotmail.com or give us a call at Tel: 505/689-1287.

For pricing: http://ziaqueenbees.com/ZQBprices2012.pdf

*For those interested in top bar starter nucleus colonies, last year impacted our numbers and we have a wait list. We are not sure how many more our bees will be able to accomodate this season.

If open to it, we can modify a Langstroth nuc to fit your top bar by either cutting the frame in half or the cutting off the side angles and then screwing/tying on your own top bar. Then rotate out the starter bar-frames once the bees have begun to pull their own comb on your own bars. Mark is offering to modify frames for those interested.

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Marygael Meister- the DenverBees.org coordinator has put together a most awesome list of visiting presentors for this year. Their meetings are free and open to all beekeepers.

2012 REGULAR MEETINGS
Our monthly meetings begin at 7:00 pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month in the Denver Police Station District 1 Community Room at 1311 West 46th Avenue, Denver, Colorado. There is usually a meeting designed specifically for new beekeepers at 6:30pm (prior to our regular meetings). These events are free and open to the public. Our calendar is subject to change, so please check our website for the latest updates

In addition, a number of weekend workshops are scheduled each year to give participants a hands-on opportunity to learn new beekeeping skills & techniques and visit other bee yards.

February 28Honey
Dr. Ron Fessenden, The Honey Revolution Restoring the Health of Future Generations
March 27Apitherapy
Dr. Frederique Keller,licensed acupuncturist, medical herbalist in a private practice that also incorporates classical homeopathy and bee venom therapy as well as utilizes honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and bee bread where applicable. I also work in a second office specializing in sports and spinal injuries.
April 24Bee Nutrition
Dr. Larry Connor
Dr. Connor is also teaching a class on April 21st…please see listing under classes
May 22Beekeeping Through a Biologist’s Eyes
Randy Oliver,
June 26Bee Mites, From the Mites’ Perspective
Ron Ochoa, Research Entomologist from the USDA, “Bee Mites, From the Mites’ Perspective”, a different look at the parasitic relationship of one of the honeybee’s biggest foes
July 24Bees in Trees
Deborah Delaney, U of Delaware on “Bees in Trees” Dr. Delaney will go over the genetics of honey bee populations in the U.S. and talk about the differences in managed and unmanaged honey bee colonies.
August 28BEE
Rose Lynn Fisher on her book, BEE Ms. Fisher will talk about her motivation and how she came to capture such vibrant photographic portraits of the honey bee.
September 25Beeconomy:
Tammy Horn; What Women and Bees Can Teach Us about Local Trade and the Global Market

October 30Dr. Jennifer Berry,Apicultural Research Coordinator and Lab Manager at the University of Georgia.
November 27BioBees
Phil Chandler

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Make an ecard

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We will be presenting at this 2012 North American Beekeeping Conference-
held in Las Vegas, NV Jan. 10-14th.

For more info visit:

http://www.nabeekeepingconference.com/

Mark will be discussing, “How Old Are Your Drone’s Mothers?”

Melanie will be discussing her enlistment “In Her Majesty’s Secret Service” &
“Father Time Tested- Mother Nature Approved: Utilizing Longevity as the basis for a Selective Breeding Paradigm”.

If possible, we will record it and upload our presentations here on our blog….

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Dear member of the Bee Collaborative community,

I thought you might like to know that we now have colorful artisan nests available 24/7 at etsy.com/shop/botanicarts. These nests are for orchard mason bees. Prior to this month, they’ve only been available at one-time events in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, at EarthDay and Garden Party events.

Now accompanied by an instruction kit, the nests make a captivating educational project for kids of all ages, and are a great gift for gardeners. They are more colorful than ever. After several years of research they’re optimized to keep the bees healthy and cozy. The kit contains detailed instructions to help you successfully overwinter the bee cocoons indoors and to assist the bees in getting started with their nesting activities easily in the spring.

Coming soon! We are adding a commercial website to augment our non-profit work in early 2012, with pollinator plant seeds and garden supplies that support all the bees.

If you’d like an announcement of the URL when the site goes live, please send us an email reply & we’ll make sure you are notified.

Thanks for supporting our friends the bees, and BotanicArts’ and the Collaborative’s work to publicize their needs,

Laurie Lange, director
BotanicArts & the Bee Collaborative
botanicarts@earthlink.net
505 . 220 . 2726

Categories: All Bee Community Info  CareNo Comments.

Our good friend and rep Resa will be selling her exquisite painted silks and goat milk soaps and beeswax salves along with some of our varietal honeys and other bee goodies at a few events coming up for the holidays.

This coming weekend, Nov. 26-27th, You can find her at the NM Highlands University, Arts and Crafts Fair in Las Vegas from 9am-4pm.

Then she’ll be at Santa Fe Community College Holiday Fair on Dec. 3rd from 9am-4pm.

On Saturday December 10th, she’ll be at La Montanita Coop in Santa Fe from 2pm to 5pm

and on Sunday, December 11th at La Montanita Coop Valley branch in Albuquerque from 1pm to 4pm.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

It is at this time of year that we recall all the blessings we have been presented with: Healthy bees! Good friends! Supportive Communities! And of course, our children! :)

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Come taste the best of this season’s harvest on Nov. 12th at Jemez Feast Day in Jemez Pueblo. The dancing is divine and so is the food and artesanal wares!

We have been assigned to booth #272 on Walatowa Avenue at Jemez Pueblo.
Look for the NM HONEY flag.

Should be a glorious day along the river! Come give thanks and praise and taste delicious raw and pure NM honey in time for Thanksgiving!

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