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NICOT Queen Rearing: The Non-Grafting Method for Raising Local Queens

Product ID : 6660777


Galleon Product ID 6660777
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About NICOT Queen Rearing: The Non-Grafting Method For

Beekeeping is a journey of many roads. This is a manuscript for beekeepers wishing to learn how to raise their own, local queens...but just cannot bring themselves to figure out how to graft. The NICOT queen rearing system explains how the average beekeeper implements its unique design and overcomes the distinctive hurdles to raising local queens without grafting. The Nicot system is not the only non-grafting approach, but it works. This manuscript shares the journey of one beekeeper who taught himself how to raise his own queen honey bees. Grant F. C. Gillard, a small-scale commercial beekeeper since 1981, shares his insights and philosophies, his field-tested ideas and sustainable methods on how to hang tough, to persevere in the face of adversity, to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint. Grant often tells people, “The Nicot kit is not the perfect method to raise queens; but neither is it the only way. It is what it is, but it becomes what we make it. It holds tremendous potential for the average beekeeper to take control of their genetics and shape, even reshape the destiny of their apiaries.” In essence, that is Grant’s purpose for raising his own queens, particularly in an era of “natural” beekeeping, managing our colonies with reduced and minimalistic treatments, and breeding our own locally-adapted queens from survivor stock. Grant wanted better queens than he was buying from the large, commercial queen producers in the south. He felt the Nicot system created the best opportunities, and lowered the bar for those beekeepers who didn’t know how to graft. Grant adds, “My journey raising my own queens covers a number of seasons, more than I can count at this point. I readily admit I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box but I’ve learned to keep on coloring, even if most of my work can’t stay within the lines.” There’s an old bit of advice that suggests real education is learning from our mistakes. Yet the best, most efficient education learns from the mis