Innovating Queen Rearing: How Dan Long Built EZPZ from the Bee Yard Up

When beekeepers talk about queen rearing, timing is everything—and timing doesn’t always cooperate.

For Dan Long, Georgia Master Beekeeper and founder of EZPZ Beekeeping Equipment, that reality became the spark for innovation.

Learning the Hard Way

When Dan began raising queens, he quickly learned why beekeepers often cage capped queen cells. Managing multiple jobs meant that emergence timing wasn’t always perfect, and more than once he opened an incubator to find virgins running loose—and killing each other.

Dan prefers genuine JZBZ queen cell cups for grafting, but there wasn’t a cage designed to fit them properly. Like many handy beekeepers, he rigged up various adaptations, but none were quite right.

Eventually, he bought a 3D printer and started learning design.

Designing a Better Queen Cage

Using his own experience and advice from other beekeepers, Dan designed a cage that fit correctly and functioned the way queen rearers actually work in the field. The result was the EZPZ Queen Cage.

The cage rides securely over a JZBZ cell bar and includes two closed sides so the queen can shelter when needed. It also features two small troughs that allow the beekeeper to add a drop of water and a drop of honey without creating a mess. The cell cup can be swapped out for a candy cap, allowing the same cage to be used for queen introduction.

Evaluating Queens Before Introduction

One unexpected benefit of caging queen cells was the ability to evaluate queens before introduction. Dropping cells directly into mating nucs is standard practice, but it can be a bit of a roll of the dice.

Being able to see a virgin queen properly developed and moving vigorously provides valuable information before committing her to a mating nuc. Some beekeepers take this a step further by weighing virgins as part of their culling process, and some even mark them before introduction. It requires more effort, but for those focused on quality, Dan believes the time is well spent.

From One Tool to a Full System

The EZPZ Queen Cage quickly gained popularity, and additional products followed. Today, EZPZ offers a range of supporting tools, including trays to keep cages upright and organized, cell bar brackets to create graft frames, a grafting stand, and a complete queen cell incubator.

EZPZ Queen Cages

Some of these products were created to solve problems Dan encountered himself, while others were developed in response to requests from fellow beekeepers.

Dan enjoys the collaborative process of design. Solving a problem and making the challenging task of raising queens a little easier has been a driving force behind the growth of EZPZ.

Collaboration and Recognition

Most recently, Dan collaborated with Florida beekeeper Aaron Weber, who was looking for a cage to hold swarm cells he wanted to harvest and emerge in an incubator. Over several months, Dan shipped prototypes back and forth, refining the design based on field trials.

The result was developed into a complete kit now offered on the EZPZ website. The innovation earned national recognition, winning the American Beekeeping Federation’s Bee Practical Award.

Growing Without Losing Focus

EZPZ has grown from a couple of basic printers to eight high-speed, precision printers running nearly 24/7. Products ship throughout the United States and Canada, with production partners in the UK and Australia. EZPZ equipment is now used in more than a dozen countries worldwide.

Despite that growth, the focus remains the same: improving queen rearing success through practical innovation and collaboration.

“It’s been an excellent journey so far,” Dan says, “and I hope to continue it for many years to come.”

About Dan Long

Dan Long founder of EZPZ and Georgia Beekeeper of the Year.

Dan Long is a Georgia Master Beekeeper, past president of the Eastern Piedmont Beekeepers Association, and volunteer beekeeper for Sandy Creek Nature Center in Athens, Georgia. He was named Georgia Beekeeper of the Year in 2022.

He manages approximately 50 colonies for honey production and nucleus sales and operates Tallassee Highlands Apiary, founded in 2010. In 2023, he founded EZPZ Beekeeping Equipment, a business focused on designing and 3D-printing tools for raising queens.

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In Use at The Beekeepers Academy

EZPZ products are used within The Beekeepers Academy queen breeding program and associated research projects, supporting grafting, incubation, and queen handling workflows.

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