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Queens & Cells
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Small-batch Queen Rearing
Bec started rearing queens in 2012, and it has been her specialty since. In 2019, she came across a strain of Carniolan hybrids that were well-suited to the fickle weather of Southwest Florida. She has focused on retaining the great qualities of her original stock while also adding other desirable traits to the line. In addition, she has added Buckfast hybrids to the lineup as they were often requested by her colleagues.
Queen Rearing & Breeding
Queen breeding is an ever-evolving craft; it involves careful observation, evaluation and patience. We select our potential breeders based on brood pattern, temperament, hygienic behavior, and worker bee productivity such as honey production and pollen collection. Once the traits we are selecting for have been proven for a season, we integrate that queen and colony into our breeder pool.
Mating Yards
We like things organized. However, mating yards need to be a little more random, so nice straight lines and rows of identical boxes don’t exactly work for mating yards. When returning from mating flights, queens need to be able to easily distinguish their nuc from others. So we run colorful boxes with the entrances faced in varying directions. This lessens potential drifting, and allows us to still keep our mating yards organized and space-efficient!
Queens
Our queens are the stars of our business, and as such, they are handled with the utmost care and respect. Regardless of whether they will be taking up permanent residence in our queen yard as an addition to the breeder collection, becoming the head of a hive going to pollination or making their way to a customer, all our queens are treated like royalty.
All queens are vetted for quality; we allow them to lay a little longer to ensure that they have a strong pheromone, show excellent brood patterns and good temperament. No queens leave our apiary without being thoroughly inspected to confirm that they meet our own rigorous standards.
To help ensure quality queens, we bank our queens as little as possible; for small orders, queens are often caught the same day they will be picked up. Therefore, we request ample time for large orders.
Carniolan Hybrid
Our house favorite is our Carniolan hybrid. These queens have won the heart of our most discriminating customers. They are quick to build up but the queen will slow down brood production when resources become scarce.
Docile and productive, this line has been bred to withstand the climate of SWFL.
Cells
Thanks to our amazing weather here in Southwest Florida, cells are available year round.
Either our Carni or Buckfast hybrids are available upon request. Local pickup only, minimum 25 cells. Please have an incubator or cooler with warming pad ready when picking up cells for transport to your apiary.
Our normal grafting schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We place cells on day 11, so this allows us to place cells on Fridays, Mondays and Tuesdays. If you have need of cells on a particular date that falls outside our usual schedule, we will certainly try to accommodate your needs.
2022 Queen & Cell Pricing
Queens: $28 each. Marking available on request, no charge.
Cells: $4 each, 25 cell minimum.
Availability
Cells available year-round, feel free to contact us for current stock.
Mated queens available now! They sell out quickly, so please make sure to reserve yours early.
Pickup days: Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 12PM – 4PM. We are happy to try to accommodate pickup days/times if our normal pickup times are inconvenient for you, so don’t hesitate to ask for a different day/time!
