Featured Queen Bee: Junie Bee

Junie Bee is a 3-year old New World Carniolan. We purchased her from Strachan Apiaries, which is part of Sue Coby’s project to collect genetics from all over the world.

Junie Bee is survivor stock from 2012, a major drought year.

Carniolans are known for reducing their numbers (cluster size) when there is a shortage of resources, like pollen and honey. Our other Carniolan colonies gave up in June 2012 when the drought was at its worst.

Junie Bee and her sisters refused to face defeat in the face of bad weather and kept working, producing surplus honey. She was named after the month of June because that was the worst of the drought.

Junie Bee has been working hard for us since 2012. Notice the condition of her wings! Junie B is part of our survivor stock honeybee lines, whose daughters we cross with feral bees in the feral bee project. We use survivor stock queens, like Junie Bee, and mate them with feral bees from Southern Utah.

Her offspring are calm, gentle bees.