Pike County Beekeepers are concerned about all the problems and publicity surrounding the survival of Bees and their integral services (pollination) to the vegetable industry and survival of many commercially produced & native plants.  Pike County has one of the strongest Beekeeper organizations in the state, even to the point that we have 2 members that regularly attend & serve on the State and Perdue programs on Queen Breeding and Artificial Insemination of Bees.  Because of this exposure and the need for affordable local queens, the group came up with the idea of developing our own Queen Raising Workshop in which there would be the educational component and a "hands-on" component.  All participants would not only learn the process, but would also, take some Queen larvae back to their own bee yards.  Dorothy Morgan (President of the Kentucky Queen Breeders Association) was recruited to do the workshop.  A list of requirements & equipment was put together and then participants interested in developing their own queens were recruited.  Because so little is know about queen rearing, people interested were required to have kept bee for a number of years, be willing to bring a hive to Pikeville, and be willing to share their expertise and genetics with the group.  All the equipment was acquired for each participant and a small fee was charged so that they may take the equipment home to develop their own queens.  17 people from 4 states participated in the workshop. Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia participated and were able to take inspected Queen bee larvae home with them.  (bees must be inspected to take across state lines)In our workshop it was brought out that queen bees can be a source of income for the breeders, with feral queen bringing anywhere from $10 to $20 each and some of the better producing queens may bring as high as $800 each.  This has the potential to develop into a very successful business for some beekeepers as they gain skills in Queen Rearing.  Because of the success and potential, we have plans to do a training annually as long as there is interest.