Sunday, June 18, 2017

We are David and Sheri Burns from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms and Honeybeesonline.com. We are located in East Central Illinois 40 miles west of Champaign/Urbana. Now that we are deep into the beekeeping season the biggest challenge is to ensure you have a strong queen. It's amazing how often queen die or disappear? Maybe your hive is trying to replace their queen by raising a new one but it is just now working. Sometimes queens just need replaced.

Here are several reasons why you may want to replace your queen. She's getting old. When a queen is older than 2 or 3 years, there is a risk that she may stop laying during winter. Many beekeeper inspect their colonies late winter and find they need a queen. But, it is almost impossible to find a queen that early in the year. To make sure you have a healthy queen through the winter, replace your queen in June or July. Now is the time! Replacing a queen can also create a break in the brood cycle thus reducing mites. And you need a large number of new bees in the fall to be your winter bees. Can you trust your old queen to get the job done?

Beekeepers can accidentally kill the queen while removing honey supers. Do not assume you have a good laying queen. Make sure and if you cannot find your queen, order your queen today. We have a limited number of queens available this week. They are available online now. Click here to order now. Or if you want to pick up a queen instead of having her shipped, call us on Tuesday after 10am central time. We are shipping queens on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.

We still have a few spots left in our queen rearing class this Thursday.Click here for more information.

Why Not Support Northern Queens Produced From Strong Colonies
I'm excited about offering our queens for sale again this year, 2017. As you know I am very particular about providing quality queens. I've put together my "QUEEN DREAM TEAM" consisting of three of us that will be raising queens for 2017. Myself and two other highly respected and experienced beekeepers are working hard raising queens. CLICK HERE. Or call in during business hours, Tues - Thur. 10-4:30 central time. 217-427-2678
The queens that we sell are not a specific "race" but rather queens that have been raised from selected northern colonies that we are proud of. Our queens are raised here in Illinois. As producers we are in compliance with the Illinois Department of Agricultural's rules and regulation regarding raising queens. All hives from which we are raising queens have passed inspection for 2017.


Having a honey super when you need it means your bees can continue working making your as much honey as possible. If you remove a super to harvest be sure to place another super in it's place for maximum honey production. Order your super now.