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Queen Sales
We
sell and can ship mated queen bees from April until
August.
Shipping is overnight via UPS and can be fairly
expensive, so orders of 50+ queens are more cost
effective, although we will ship any size order.
Our breeder queens are hand picked from vigorous Pacific
Northwest stock. Production and disease resistance are
the primary traits we look for in our breeders but
gentleness and winter hardiness are also factors. Our
queens are from Italian or Carniolan stock, or a mix of
the two. The Italian bees tend to have better production
but less winter hardiness. Carniolans produce brood more
slowly than the Italians, but also won't eat themselves
out of house and home in the winter. Our hybrid queens
tend to have good spring build up ability, excellent
mite and disease resistance and also winter well.
Early spring queens are harvested as soon as they are
laying consistently with viable larvae, usually 17 to 21
days after cell install. Summer queens are caught on
demand to reduce the time spent in a queen bank, and can
be old enough to have capped brood.
Warning to novice beekeepers:
The queen cannot create a hive herself. Our queens will
be shipped with attendant bees but these aren't enough
for a viable hive. You will need either a four-frame nuc
(four frames of bees, brood and honey stores) a package
(2-3 lbs of bees and a can of feed syrup) or a spring
swarm (nature's package bees) If you catch a swarm, be
sure to kill the feral queen before replacing her with
the new one.
For information on ordering queens or more on our queen
breeding program please call (208) 896 4552 or
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