September 2002.

After an early finish of the season I took a couple of weeks off to relax in Cyprus, and to see what's Roger is doing at his queen and honey production business. Roger is located on the east side of Cyprus, near Larnaca and the airport. He is producing queens for the European market, being able to supply queens early in the season due to a reliable climate.

Roger with one of the drone hives on a mating station.

Mating nucs of his own construction. They are kept populated all year and managed like a standard hive. Frames with brood and honey can be taken from strong hives to help weaker, or to start new nucs.	When summers get very hot in Cyprus, bees need to have some shade.

Small feeders.	6 frames in each box.

The bees in Cyprus have to protect themselves against hornets. The way they do it is to always stay close together at the entrance so hornets can't grab a single bee without risking to get dragged into the group of bees and get balled.

Here you can see bees balling a wasp. There is also a dead wasp previously killed by the bees.

We are up in the mountains to take off honey supers. Roger is getting the blower ready.