Our First 2026 Queen Is Mated and Laying

The new queen can be seen near the center of the shot, surrounded by worker bees.

We made a few walkaway splits on April 26th, which was a little early for our area, but the warm weather gave us a chance to get started.

On May 21st, we checked back in and found our first successfully mated A-Line queen of 2026. She’s laying well and got a white mark after the photo so we can keep better track of her through the season.

She came from one of our best-performing colonies, headed by a 2024 queen that came through winter extremely strong. It’s a small milestone, but an exciting one as we continue evaluating our own stock and breeding toward strong, productive bees suited for our local conditions in Central New York.