Our Visit to Rozier Apiaries in Georgia

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Returned today from our trip down south to visit Rozier Apiaries, our queen and package bee producer in southern Georgia. Roziers have a long history with bees and Jerry Rozier (Jr) along with his cousin grew up in the business (Jerry is a 3rd generation beekeeper). Jerry and his cousin "cut their teeth" in the business by working for many years for York Bee Company in Jesup GA (which existed from the 1920s until the death of its primary owner in 2003/2004...York raised queens and sold package bees, some through the Sears catalog up through the 1970s...how things change). After York, Jerry and his cousin went to work for Spell Bee Company and ultimately Gardner/Spell Bee Company where they managed the operations and helped the company to grow (Gardner/Spell Bee runs about 30,000 hives, produces 45,000-50,000 packages per year and 230,000-250,000 queens a year) They continued with Gardner until 4-5 years ago when they decided to strike out on their own to form Rozier Apiaries since the direction Gardner/Spell Bee was going was not a direction they desired to continue with. So Jerry and his cousin built a team comprised mostly of trusted/committed family members and a select couple of others, all of whom work/worked in various other bee/queen operations in southern Georgia. Roziers raise queens (Italian and Carniolian) on a smaller scale, for Georgia at least, (4,000-5,000 a year), and produce package bees (about 3,000 per year). Georgia is the #2 state, behind California, with regard to queen and package bee production. Texas is #3.

A large portion of southern Georgia is sandy ground covered with pine trees (logging and timber products/paper is a major industry around Baxley with package bee/queen producers a close second). Most of the mating yards are located in the pine groves and driving around the back roads one comes across mating yards with the mating nucs neatly laid out in the groves (typically it is a little warmer there this time of year..in the 60-70 degree range, but on our visit it was cold...40-50). Their breeder queens colonies are mostly in single deeps, but some are in a deep with a medium on top and others are in 5-frame nucs. While they aren't actively raising queens this time of year, they are gearing up for the season already, making package cages, culling through equipment, and waiting for a little warmer weather to make trial grafts. Rozier uses the 3-hole Benton queen cages and puts attendants in with the queens sent with the bulk bees in the packages (that is similar to what we had obtained in the past from other Georgia producers, such as Wilbanks Apiaries).

In Georgia all package bee and queen producers must be licensed and all colonies that are used for queen and package bee production have to be inspected by the state. They are required by the state to treat all colonies from which package bees and queens originate for mites at least 7 days prior to shipment. Like many of the queen producers across the US, Rozier treats their cell builder and finisher colonies for mites on a routine cycle. Hive beetles are not a significant problem in their area according to Jerry, although there are areas of Georgia where the beetle is s problem.  Strong colonies, clean apiaries and continual monitoring are his primary methods of control.

It was an interesting trip overall and fun to see a "all-hands-on-deck" family operation.

Rich

Capital Bee Supply, LLC

Manufacturers and Purveyors of Fine Beekeeping Equipment

[Marcin]

Thanks for sharing Rich. Always enjoy reading how big outfits operate and seeing pictures from their bee yards.