Now that Ed has retired we have begun enlarging our operation to 200 hives. In addition we are reworking our business and marketing plans to reflect our new business goals. Lastly we are continuing our queen rearing operation and next year our goal is to produce 1,000 queens.
Since 2003 we have been using Russian Bees from Bob Brachman, Ray Revis and Charlie Harper who are members of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association and from Kirk Webster in Vermont. In the last two years we have introduced New World Carniolan Breeder Queens from Sue Cobey at the University of California at Davis and now our NWC and Russian bees are coexisting in our main breeding yard. This is the 8th year in which we have not used any medications on our bees and we will continue that commitment to encourage New Jersey survivor Honeybees.
But these three commitments – achieving new business goals, encouraging New Jersey survivor Honeybees and operating a queen rearing operation- require all of our time, our energy and our focus. So something has to give – there is only so much time in a day!
For the last two years we have been practicing instrumental insemination techniques but never got to the point where we felt ready to integrate it into our operation. After much discussion Mary and I decided we must focus on our major business commitments; so we are putting our instrumental insemination equipment up for sale.
