Queen Bees

                                       QUEEN BEES

Queen bees are referred to an adult, mated female that lives in a honey bee colony or hive; a female bee with fully developed reproductive organs, she is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queen bees are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her.

The honey bee colony works as a social unit and every member has a part to play. But without a queen bee, the colony will fail to thrive.  A good quality well-mated queen is vital to colony build up in preparation for spring foraging.

 What Does the Queen Do?

The queen bees are the only female that can lay fertilized eggs. Queen bees can lay up to 3,000 eggs a day. This is important because fertilized eggs develop into the workforce of the hive. Without her no new worker bees can be raised.

In addition to laying eggs, the honey bee queen produces special pheromones. These queen pheromones are chemical messengers that aid in colony communication.

What Does the Queen Bee Look Like?

The queen is largest bee in the colony; a mature mated queen is about twice the size of the worker bees. This is due primarily to her long abdomen. However, her middle section or “thorax” is slightly larger than the worker bees also.

Her size can vary a bit due to the type of bee (or race) that is part of her genetic heritage. Age plays a role too as young virgin queen bees are typically smaller.

How are Queen Bees made?

The life cycle of a queen bee begins with a fertilized egg. When the colony needs a new queen, worker bees select several very young female larvae.In spite of the best planning, sometimes a honey bee queen will die. If the queen bee dies, the colony must spring into action quickly.

It takes 16 days for a new queen to be produced and additional time for her to mature and mate. The future of the hive depends on getting a new queen on the throne as quickly as possible.

 Buy Honey Bee for Sale

Buying a queen bee for a hive is a very common beekeeper task. Re-queening is when a queen is replaced, due to the death of the original queen, poor genetics or simply because she has become unproductive. It is recommended that the new queen is from a different genetic line, to give your colony a greater chance of survival. This will help with productivity and queen disposition as well.

You can even buy one online or buy a queen bee near you and have her shipped through the mail. However, the beekeeper cannot simply drop a new one in a colony. The new queen will smell different than all the other occupants. Workers of the colony view her as a threat and usually kill her. She must be introduced to the colony slowly.

How often should I re-queen my hive?

In general, queens are good for one or two years, and first-year queens are the best. One of the best ways to be successful at beekeeping is to re-queen your colonies every year.

QUEEN HONEY BEES FOR SALE

Whether you are a seasoned commercial beekeeper or just beginning and discovering the thrill of backyard or urban beekeeping, queen bees are perfect for you! Mated queen bees will take you through the season with improved vitality, excellent honey production, and maximum disease resistance.

You are not only getting a high quality Queen with great genetics, but you are getting the benefits of a high-quality control process:  from breeder queen selection to colony feeding (to produce quality royal jelly and queen cells), to grafting, incubating and finally getting the queens and cells to you.

Mated Queen Bees for Sale

Queens are naturally opened mated and arrive ready to begin laying eggs in your colony. The queen breeder colonies are selected based on a high yield of honey production, brood, and a quick spring build-up.  We also carefully select queen stock that demonstrates tolerance to mites and other pests, pathogens and we always look for a gentle disposition.

Italian Queen Bees for sale

Italian Queens are known for producing hives that have a high volume of brood year-round. The queen tends to continue to lay eggs regardless of weather, nectar or pollen conditions and many beekeepers who pollinate in early spring prefer the Italian for this reason. Since Italian queens produce a large hive population, it’s important to keep the colony fed throughout colder months when bees are unable to forage and are also otherwise consuming high amounts of syrup or honey. They can sustain in the colder climates but will need food or honey for the brood.

Italian queens are bred to have a high degree of hygienic behavior known to be effective against diseases of the brood infestations such as foulbrood and chalkbrood honey bee disease.

Carniolan Queen Bees for Sale

Carniolans are known for their winter hardiness, rapid spring buildup, and exceptional honey production. They show excellent resistance to tracheal mites and are great comb builders. Carniolan queens are a very gentle and prolific dark/black color honey bee variety.  Carniolan bees are excellent honey producers, and the queens use less propolis than those other races of queen honey bees.  They fly better in slightly cooler weather, and are better in northern climates.

When buying Carniolian queen bees, you can be confident that we have spent the time to ensure good genetics by allowing for open mating. This often results in a mixed breed of quality traits between Italian Queens and Carniolan Queens as well as the associated benefits often sought after in quality queens. Many beekeepers who are not in one extreme climate or the other, will usually try both breeds in order to have continued strong diversity and quality traits. 

Saskatraz Queen Bees for Sale

Saskatraz breeder queens are selected for honey production, wintering ability, temperament, tracheal mite resistance, varroa tolerance / resistance and brood diseases. These queens produce colonies with genetically diverse workers .The Saskatraz breeding program uses recurrent natural selection to select for varroa tolerance in productive colonies with good economic traits.

Use of Saskatraz hybrid stock in your apiaries should provide drone populations which will increase the frequency of alleles for honey production and varroa tolerance, as well as other economic traits. This is because drones from the hybrids carry the genetics of their mother, the breeder queen.

Cordovan Queen Bees For sale

Cordovan queens are the most popular queen bee in North America. The queens are gentle and good honey producers. They are better in southern climates but known to survive in northern climates. Queens usually have bands on their abdomen of brown to yellow color.