In 2008, our club (the PWRBA) won a SARE grant to “promote sustainable beekeeping through the local production of nucleus colonies (nucs) and local Queen production”.  The PWRBA SARE project is now complete. The final report and appendices are below:

• Final Report
• Final Report – Appendix A
• Final Report – Appendix B (photos)
• SARE article on the project
• SARE project Mention in Washington Post article

The guidelines and forms used in the study (and revised since) are below:

• PWRBA 2019 Nuc Guidelines
• Hive Assessment Form
• Ways to Get Bees_Revised 2019 (not used in our study, but informed by our work then and since!)

The Sustainable Apiary– Mike Palmer at The National Honey Show

Related to our SARE project

The Sustainable Apiary Part 1 and 2.  PWRBA 2011 presentations by Michael Palmer found via link on our PWRBA Video page or PWRBA Vimeo page

Managing Overwintered Nucs– A short field video lesson.

NorthEast SARE Video on our Sister SARE project

SARE project was featured in the MSBA newsletter.

Queen Survival Study from BANV

Click here for Overland SARE report  We also have what we love to affectionately refer to as our Sister SARE Project, A Comparison of Honey Bee Colony Strength and Survivability between Nucleus and Package Started Colonies, which is headed up by Erin Forbes of Overland Honey in Maine. Erin actually won three SARE projects. Her second project in 2010 was motivated by the terrible weather in 2009 skewing her results so they did another year.  In 2012 she was awarded a 3rd grant to increase the sample size and try and replicate results having all colonies in one bee yard.

Other Cool Folks Similar Projects & Results

Marin County Beekeepers– Bee Census and other cool stuff