• Preface by Henri Clement
• Foreword by Gilles Fert

1. Queens and Bee Races
   1. The queen
   2. Drones
   3. Natural reproduction
   4. Bee races
2. Getting Colonies Ready
   1. Selecting breeder colonies
   2. Hygienic bees
   3. Keeping breeder queens
   4. Preparing & feeding cell builders
      1. Treating against Varroa
      2. Syrup feeding
      3. Bee bread, pollen, protein
3. Raising a Few Queens
   1. Choosing the right method
   2. Raising fewer than 20 queens
      1. De-queening
      2. Bentley method
      3. Horizontal hives
   3. Raising 20-200 queens
      1. Miller method
      2. Alley method
4. Grafting (Doolitle Method)
   1. Basic equipment
      1. Cups
      2. Cell bar frames
      3. Grafting tool
   2. Prepare cups and larvae
   3. Grafting
   4. Alternatives to grafting
      1. Cell punch
      2. The Nicot system
   5. Starters
      1. Closed starters
      2. The swarm box
      3. Open starters
   6. Finishers
      1. Horizontal finisher
      2. Double horizontal finisher
      3. Vertical finisher
   7. The Cloake starter/finisher
      1. Horizontal starter/finisher
   8. Cell incubators
   9. Candling
5. Controlled Mating
   1. Mating biology
      1. Drone congregation areas
   2. Drone rearing
   3. Mating yards
      1. Isolation and selection
      2. Preventing drift
      3. Robbing
   4. Mating nuc models
      1. Mini-nucs
      2. Five-frame nucs
      3. Queen castles
   5. Mating nuc management
      1. Stocking
      2. Feeding
      3. Strengthening
   6. Moving and distributing cells
   7. The two-queen system
6. Evaluating and Handling Mated Queens
   1. Finding the queen
      1. Using a queen excluder
   2. Quality control
   3. Marking queens
      1. Paint or labels
      2. Colour coding
   4. Clipping
   5. Shipping queens
      1. Shipping cages
   6. Selling queens
7. Queen Introduction and Banking
   1. Colony development
   2. Successful queen introduction
   3. Queen cell introduction
   4. Virgin queen introduction
   5. Mated queen introduction
   6. Introducing valuable queens
   7. Re-queening a drone-laying hive
   8. Storing queens in queen banks
      1. Banks with brood
      2. Broodless banks
      3. Storing virgin queens
      4. Storing mated queens in cages
8. Producing Packaging Bees
   1. Package bees
   2. Equipment
      1. Shaker box
   3. Preparing colonies
   4. The collection procedure
   5. Bees destined for nucs
   6. Bees meant for sale
      1. Shipping
      2. Care upon delivery
      3. Hiving package bees
9. Producing Royal Jelly
   1. Equipment
   2. Feeding
   3. The bees
   4. The production method
   5. The harvest
      1. Spoons and pumps
      2. Filtration
      3. Packing and storage
   6. Starting a new batch of cups
   7. The final product

• Queen Rearing Calendar
• Success Story: Local Queens by Kirk Webster
• Glossary
• Index

Reviewed by John Phipps The Beekeepers Quarterly No. 139, March 2020

For his latest publishing venture, Leo Sharashkin has produced a new, up-dated edition of Gilles Fert’s queen rearing book from 2012, a very colourful and well-illustrated manual, covering a wide range of subjects essential to the process, each carefully described with key manipulations point by point.

Whilst essentially the biological aspects of the task are immutable, the ways in which beekeepers rear a few queens, or by the thousands, differs immensely. Thus, several systems are described to suit the individual needs of beekeepers including the Bentley, Miller, Alley, Doolittle and Cloake methods.

Consideration is given to the types of grafting that can be carried out, the ways in which starter and finisher colonies can be used, the make up and distribution of nuclei and the introduction of mated/ unmated queens into colonies, including those that have laying workers.

Importantly there is a good section on drones and how they can be successfully reared in large numbers.

So, from the basic biology of the queen and drone, the selection of suitable strains for breeding, the whole business of rearing queens, the author moves on to how this valuable harvest of new queens can be utilised into producing quality queens for sale, the production of package bees and, as a side line, the production of the much valued royal jelly.

A book for the modern beekeeper, using traditional or more sustainable top bar hives, as well as the latest technology, including sophisticated incubators.

An additional piece at the end of the book, by the treatment-free beekeeper, Kirk Webster, is an inspiring account of his large scale method of queen rearing in the cold climate of Canada, where he successfully overwinters hundreds of new queens in small nucs. A real success story.