What torrential rains! Glad to have them though they made it difficult to cover all the topics at our Queen Rearing workshop that we held this past Saturday- July 24th at our home farm. For those of you who were able to make it, we appreciate it and we enjoyed it- immensely!
We will be offering [...]

Couldn’t resist! Our little one is becoming quite familiar with our beekeeping lives. As she is beginning to learn words- more and more apicultural terms are escaping her lips.
She knows how to say HONEY! and recognizes it in any container- of course demading a taste.
She can also say “BZZZ”, “bee” and “mama bee” (when she [...]

June’s Queen Rearing workshop was fun! We thank Seeds of Change for sharing their awesome facility and we also thank those who attended.
We will be offering a repeat workshop July 24th, 2010 @ our home farm at 8300′ foot elevation Truchas, New Mexico USA!
This is high mountain queen rearing at our best. See the following [...]

Steve Wall of Santa Fe offers quality top bar hives for sale. They come with screened bottom board and a follower board. See flyer!

Here’s a link for a lil’ brochure on our upcoming workshop for experienced beekeepers.
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d5459354d4467354e7a6b3d0d0a&blogview=true&campaign=blog_playback_link
There are a few spaces left for June 12, 2010 Intro to Queen Rearing Workshop. Cost is $150 and includes: manual, grafting tool, cell cups, live queencells to take home & all day hands-on workshop & instruction.
Mark and I are excited to share. There [...]

What a pleasant visit from Mark and Dorothee from Organic Nation.tv!
We met in Santa Fe on a glorious sunny spring day, and made our way through Nambe and Chimayo up to Truchas- 8300 foot elevation. I’m sure they enjoyed the views! 
We talked much about bees and positive intentions. Looking forward to seeing the video footage!–MMK
Visit: http://www.organicnation.tv/blog/zia-queenbee-co-sustainable-beekeeping-in-new-mexico.html

Hello Bee Enthusiasts- spring is indeed finally here though we just had a most awful fruit blossom freeze throughout the northern NM valleys. Pretty sad since it was just starting off and it seemed as if the chilly spring weather was finally wrapping up.
Fortunately, we hesitated early rearing here in NM this season due to [...]

Intro to Queen Rearing Workshop
June 12, 2010 at the Seeds of Change Experimental Farm in El Guique (San Juan Pueblo), we will be offering a one day workshop on Queen honeybee rearing. This workshop is for already established beekeepers. Thematic content is rather technical and suited for those who have already been keeping bees for [...]

TB slide wordpdf.
TB slide part 2 wordpdf.
Finally able to upload the Top Bar Integrative Approach slide show which I made back in 2007/8. MK

Here’s a colorful flyer for our upcoming 2010 Sweet Spring Sting: Thinking In & Out of the Bee Box
Symposium will be held March 20th- Spring Equinox- in Santa Fe.
For Pre-Registration, send an email to ziaqueenbees@hotmail.com
All flyer photos taken by me, Melanie- depicting various scenes from our beekeeping efforts.
2010 Spring Sting

Hi Beeks and Geeks and to those of us in between ;)
Check out Nate Downey’s new blog at  http://backyarddigest.blogspot.com/
Nate Downey of Permaculture Santa Fe will be joining us at the First Annual 2010 Northern NM Rocky Mountain Sweet Spring Sting- A Symposium for Bee Stewards; on March 20, 2010 in Santa Fe http://ziaqueenbees.com/zia/2010/first-annual-n…stewards-32010/
He will be sharing [...]

This article of Kirk’s was first published in The American Bee Journal March 2008 issue. This same magazine issue also contains our first ABJ article announcing The Southwest Survivor Project. I’ll be uploading archival publications and previews of upcoming articles I  am writing. MK  

 ANNOUNCING:  The First Annual Northern NM Rocky Mountain Sweet Spring Sting- “Thinking In and Out of the Bee Box”- A Symposium for Bee Stewards
With keynote speaker- Kirk Webster of Champlain Valley Bees and Queens from Vermont. Kirk has been breeding survivor stock Russian base queens for close to a decade without the use of chemicals. He [...]

MK- Here is Part II scan copy of article, Integrated Top Bar Management: the Rest of the Story, which was published in the Jan. 2010 issue of Bee Culture. I have also pasted the whole article in basic text below for easier reading. Top Bar slide show will be up en seguida…
TB article draft 1

In our neck of the woods, there is a growing trend to house bees in top bar hives. For those who are unfamiliar- a top bar hive is a single level, horizontal system which does not have side comb supports as do vertical Langstroth frames. My interpretation of both systems spans over a dozen years [...]

Spring FlingMarch 2010 Seminar!
Hello fellow beeks! Winter is in full form this year- plenty of moisture to help the spring blossoms bud!
We are excited to offer several seminars and workshops this season. Our summer course schedule will be posted soon.
First seminar to be offered coming up in late March with visiting beekeeper Kirk Webster of [...]

We are celebrating 5 years of small-scale commercial survivor stock production!
We are appreciative to everyone for their support. Working with our fellow colleagues to produce healthy bees, we are striving to promote honeybees chosen by beekeepers for beekeepers!