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Our Northumberland Dark bees form part of our long-running British Black Bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) breeding programme, developed from locally adapted Northumberland stocks alongside selected Amm genetics introduced through our wider breeding work.
For 2027, Northumberland Dark Queens will not be offered for general sale.
Rather than discontinue this work, we are retaining and developing these genetics within our own breeding programme. This allows us to concentrate on evaluating our Amm lines while streamlining our commercial queen offering around the Northumberland Buckfast.
Selected genetics from our Dark Bee programme have also contributed to the development of the Northumberland Buckfast, including through our NH99 → NHC25 breeding work.
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Our Northumberland Dark Queen Bees originate from our long-running work with British Black Bee and dark honey bee populations, including Apis mellifera mellifera (Amm) genetics.
For more than a decade, we have maintained, tested and selected dark bee colonies alongside our Buckfast breeding programme here in Northumberland. This has included locally adapted Northumberland stocks, selected British Amm genetics and controlled breeding using instrumental insemination.
Our objective has never simply been to produce a bee because it looks dark. We are interested in the characteristics carried by the population: winter economy, resilience, temperament, swarming behaviour, honey production, brood health and performance under British conditions.
For 2027, Northumberland Dark Queens will not be offered for general sale. Our British Black Bee breeding programme continues, but these genetics will remain within our own breeding population while we concentrate on further selection and development.
Working with both Dark Bee and Buckfast populations over many years has given us the opportunity to compare them under the same commercial beekeeping conditions.
Within our own Amm and dark bee populations, we have found characteristics we value greatly. These include excellent winter economy in particular lines, useful adaptation to northern conditions, performance during difficult weather and valuable genetic diversity.
We have also identified characteristics within some of our own Dark Bee lines that we want to improve further. Compared with our developed Buckfast populations, some have shown greater swarming tendency, more defensive behaviour or heavier propolisation, while particular lines have presented other challenges including brood-health issues.
These are observations from our own breeding populations and should not be interpreted as general claims about Apis mellifera mellifera as a subspecies.
Rather than producing Dark Queens simply to maintain a commercial sales offering, for 2027 we have chosen to retain these populations internally and continue selecting from them.
At the same time, we are simplifying our commercial queen offering around the breeding population that is currently giving us the combination of characteristics we want most consistently: the Northumberland Buckfast.
Removing Northumberland Dark Queens from general sale does not mean we are abandoning British Black Bee breeding.
Quite the opposite.
We continue to maintain and evaluate Amm and dark bee genetics within our breeding programme, including established Northumberland lines and selected material introduced from other British populations.
Our current and recent breeding material includes:
NH99 — a locally adapted Northumberland Amm/dark line originating from our existing stocks and maintained within our breeding programme since 2016.
H1 — a British Black Bee line developed through collaborative breeding work around Hexham. Genetic testing recorded this line as 91% Amm.
NHC90 — an instrumental-insemination line developed from NH89, an original Black Bee queen from a wild colony, using selected locally adapted dark drones.
II NHC101 — a controlled breeding line combining H1 semen with our NHC68 dark queen genetics.
Col 1 — a Colonsay-origin queen introduced into our breeding programme in 2025 and subsequently maintained within our Amm work.
Together, these represent an ongoing breeding resource rather than a single commercial strain of “Black Bee”.
Our work with British Black Bees has also influenced the development of our wider breeding population.
An important example is NH99, our locally adapted Northumberland Amm line.
Within our Buckfast programme, our established II98 genetics were used in the development of NH5, our local foundation Buckfast line. NH5 combined II98-derived queen-mother genetics with a genetically diverse, locally inherited survivor-stock drone population and was subsequently selected under Northumberland conditions.
We later made a controlled mating between NH5 and drones from NH99.
This produced NHC25.
NHC25 proved particularly interesting within our programme, demonstrating useful frugality and performance during poor-weather conditions. Rather than treating this as a one-off cross, we retained selected NHC25 colonies within our drone-producing population.
This allowed selected NH99-derived Amm influence to contribute to subsequent generations within the wider mating population from which we continue to develop the Northumberland Buckfast.
No — that would considerably oversimplify the breeding programme.
The Northumberland Buckfast is an established breeding population, developed through successive generations of breeding, testing and selection.
Our main Buckfast pedigree and our Amm-derived breeding work have distinct histories. Selected native genetics have been introduced and subsequently subjected to the same process of evaluation and selection as the rest of the population.
We therefore don’t describe the Northumberland Buckfast as a simple F1 cross, nor do we assign it a fixed percentage of British Black Bee ancestry.
Its ancestry is Buckfast. Its breeding history is distinctly our own.
Buckfast heritage. Native influence. Bred for Britain.
Appearance alone has very little value to us as a breeding criterion.
Our Dark Bee colonies are evaluated as working honey bee colonies, with selection considering characteristics including:
Instrumental insemination allows particular matings to be controlled, but pedigree alone doesn’t determine whether a colony remains within the programme.
Performance does.
Promising daughters must demonstrate useful characteristics in subsequent generations before their genetics are retained more widely.
Honey bees imported into Britain can be excellent bees, and imported genetics have played an important role in the history and development of modern Buckfast populations.
But a queen can be reared in Britain without necessarily belonging to a population developed here.
Our approach is to maintain breeding populations in Britain and select them through successive generations under the climatic, forage and management conditions in which we actually expect them to perform.
For our Northumberland operation that means cool springs, highly variable summers, long winters and the particular demands of commercial honey production in northern Britain.
Our Dark Bee programme provides another source of genetics that has already experienced selection under these conditions.
That makes its value to us much broader than simply producing a dark-coloured queen for sale.
Although our Northumberland Dark Queens and British Black Queens are not available for general sale during 2027, we are continuing to breed and maintain these populations internally.
Our commercial mated queen offering for 2027 is the Northumberland Buckfast.
Developed through more than a decade of British breeding and commercial selection, it combines established Buckfast ancestry with our own selection history and carefully selected influence from our native bee breeding work.
For 2027, only 400 Northumberland Buckfast mated queens will be released, across four scheduled batches from May to August.
→ View Northumberland Buckfast Mated Queen Bees for 2027
Potentially, yes.
The Dark Bee programme remains active and we will continue evaluating these genetics within our own colonies. If lines emerge that meet the standards we require for our commercial queen programme, we may make Northumberland Dark Queens available again in future seasons.
For now, our priority is breeding and selection rather than producing them to meet a sales schedule.
Our breeding programme contains identified Apis mellifera mellifera material and controlled Amm breeding lines, but we would not describe every Northumberland Dark Queen historically sold through this page as a genetically certified pure British Black Bee.
We believe it is more useful to be transparent about the origin, pedigree and selection of our bees than to make claims of purity that the evidence doesn’t support.
Where genetic testing has been undertaken on a particular line, we identify that specifically.
We are not operating a 2027 waiting list or taking pre-orders for Northumberland Dark Queens.
This allows the colonies we retain to be used according to the needs of the breeding programme rather than creating pressure to produce queens for an existing order book.
For beekeepers looking for one of our British-bred mated queens in 2027, our available population is the Northumberland Buckfast.
Our interest in British Black Bee genetics remains an important part of our breeding work.
Our approach is primarily that of a working bee farm and queen-breeding operation: maintaining useful genetics, evaluating them in working colonies, making controlled matings and selecting subsequent generations on performance.
We believe maintaining and understanding locally adapted British honey bee genetics has value both in its own right and as part of the wider genetic resources available to British bee breeding.
| Weight | 0.01 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 10 × 10 × 10 cm |
| Delivery or Collection Week | W/C 26th May 2025, W/C 2nd June 2025, W/C 9th June 2025, W/C 16th June 2025, W/C 23rd June 2025, W/C 30th June 2025, W/C 7th July 2025, W/C 14th July 2025, W/C 21st July 2025, W/C 28th July 2025, W/C 4th August 2025, W/C 11th August 2025, W/C 18th August 2025, W/C 25th August 2025, W/C 30th September 2024, W/C 22nd September 2025, W/C 29th September 2025, W/C 1st June 2026, W/C 22nd June 2026, W/C 13th July 2026 |
| Delivery Day | Thursday, Friday, Saturday |
| Queen Mother | H1 |
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Jan Blanthorn-Hazell (verified owner) –
So pleased! My Native Black Bee Queen has settled in beautifully. She arrived safely with her attendants and after a short time in the cage I removed the seal and she is now released and laying well. I needed new genetics as my original Queen and her daughters are very aggressive and constantly swarming
so was my only option for calmer bees. The bees are already covering the 2nd super so the 3rd has gone on. Thank you Luke and Co. for the super service – great support and delivery. First time I’ve bought a Queen Bee will definitely order from Northumberland Honey Co. again.
Guy French (verified owner) –
Great queen.Very calm and placid.Arrived a few months ago.Wanted to introduce more native strain to bees.
Nick Marsh (verified owner) –
Queen and attendants arrived in tip top condition. After a drink and a rest, the queen cage was introduced to the Queenless hive. Thank you Suzie, Luke and Co at Northumberland honey for providing such an excellent service. I will not hesitate to order from you again when the need arises.
Stephen Martin (verified owner) –
As a fairly newbie to bee keeping I collected a cast from last year, Totally useless and lost the Queen in May! As the bees were dark as the description in the picture above I decided to have a dark Queen to replace her. Best decision! the Queen supplied is very productive her offspring a bit feisty compared to my Buckfast but the honey flow soon caught up with my other bees. Will definitely Recommend the Northumberland Honey Company and purchase from them in the future. Many thanks!
Lynne (verified owner) –
I purchased a dark Queen in May very pleased arrived well packaged and all occupants in great condition, introduced and accepted into a nucleus, and ordered a second in July. Very pleased both have expanded well and are very busy. Inquisitive when hive opened but nice to handle.
Ivan Wilson (verified owner) –
Very happy with the two British dark queens. And I’ve just ordered another one.
Warren Higgins (verified owner) –
This is my first year of bee keeping and was Really happy with the level of advice and service I was given. I was desperate for a Queen and the lady I spoke to was really nice and helpful. They sent out a British black Queen next day for me. She arrived the next morning and the hive is now super calm and she is working away nicely even though she didn’t get the best start from me. Highly recommend this company 👍👍🐝
Robert Talliss (verified owner) –
Ordered a good number of these queens and they have been fantastic. Laying straight off the blocks once released, great brood pattern and great temperament.
Robert Talliss (verified owner) –
Great queens, all of the black queens we had last year have been quiet, productive and very thrifty through the winter. They are producing good strong colonies this year.
Peter Young (verified owner) –
Bought two queens last year, arrived beautifully packaged and began laying prolifically within 24 hours to the point they were very quickly moved out of nuc. Appear to have over wintered well. Buying two more this year to replace a nippy queen and split a strong hive. Highly recommended.
georgina.pentecost –
I purchased Northumberland dark queen from you in August last year. She arrived with her attendants in good health. She was introduced in to a fairy aggressive hive which quickly became calm and placid. Lovely to work with. She was easily accepted into the hive, which has done exceptionally well over the winter with very few bee loses on the hive floor throughout the winter. she has produced a beautiful strong colony. Looking forward to the season ahead. Will be purchasing some more of these queens this season. Great service, definitely recommend.
Nick Marsh (verified owner) –
I purchased a dark queen in mid September to save a swarm collected in June, that had failed to supersede. As per my last two queens from Luke & Suzie. she arrived well packaged, active and healthy, as were her attendants. I used the Knight /Tabor/Dews method of queen introduction ( see Dave Cushman Website ) I chose to keep the Queen and attendants together due to my failing eyesight. I had fed the hive 1:1 sugar syrup for a week prior to the introduction. Within minutes of the introduction, the bees were feeding the queen, and after two days all the queen candy had been consumed even though the cage door had been kept closed. I opened the door on day four. By day seven the pollen increase into the hive had increased. It is now February and the bees are collecting pollen from hazel and willow in all weather. Tough bees! I am extremely pleased with my queens from Northumberland Honey and found the company extremely helpfull.
Bruce Pearse (verified owner) –
Bought 2 of the NH99 queens last year (2023), over wintered very well and have since built up into strong colonies, easy to work with, very impressed. Not as dark as AMM but flying in cooler wetter weather when other bees are huddled inside. Getting more queens this year, fully recommend. Ordering process was straightforward, packaging and arrival of the queens were spot on!
Deian Morgans (verified owner) –
Arrived on time, colony has accepted, very quiet
Will not hesitate to order again
Paul Long (verified owner) –
I am down in East Sussex. I have progressively moved to “Blacks”. I find them frugal over winter and start going very early in the Spring. They are frequently calm, relaxed. I am now adding a bought queen a year to maintain overall genetics. These Blacks arent as mental with huge colonies as a Buckfast. I have a Black now in her 3rd year with me and she has laid the entire top brood box solidly since April. Had 4 supers of honey so far with 3 more to come.
sarahtiggymanning (verified owner) –
Arrived 3 weeks ago, on time and well packed. Very pleased so far.
Richard Croucher (verified owner) –
I have now brought Northumberland Dark Queens 3 times from Luke and Suzie and I am very pleased with them. In the past I had always stuck with Buckfast type Queens, in the belief that they are non aggressive , which is true until they either rep[lace the existing Queen themselves or the Queen is an emergency Queen. It is then that you can experience F2 Aggression , and I mean Aggression. The Northumberland Dark Queens offspring are spirited but not aggressive. I also noted that the buildup in the spring was slower than I was used too, but once they got going there was no stopping them and they built into very strong and healthy colonies, occupying 1.5 Langstroth Brood Chambers. 2 of my colonies containing Northumberland Dark Queens are very close to Heather in the New Forest and they have both supplied me with 1 Langstroth Brood Chamber ( Used as a Deep Super) I medium Langstroth super and a Section Rack, all filled to the brim. 150-160 lbs of Honey.
I have just recently brought another Northumberland Dark Queen, to requeen a Hive and take it through the winter.
So after all that said, I am very happy with the Bees that Luke and Suzie supply
Linda Graham (verified owner) –
I am very pleased with my Northumberland dark queen! She arrived very safe and well with her attendants, and I introduced them to a 5 frame nuc I had made up just before they arrived. I waited 4 days before looking, and to my delight, she was walking about on frame where she had already laid hundreds of eggs, on both sides! About a week later, I checked and found lots more eggs, but no queen! I scoured the entire box, but found nothing. I was so upset! I went away on holiday, leaving plenty of food, and was expecting to have to shake them out on my return. As soon as it was warm enough, I looked inside, only to see her sitting there surrounded by brood. It made my day!
Harry Thomas (verified owner) –
Beautiful dark queen. Arrived far and healthy in great packaging. Started laying up full frames in no time.
Ian Turley (verified owner) –
I think I must have been very unlucky and due to bad weather. I ordered three queens last year in June and due to the appalling weather there was delays but was really helpfully rushed through when available – wish I had not now. All three queens were introduced successfully but within two weeks 2/3 had gone missing after laying a few eggs, To then be told had had introduced wrongly and inspected too soon is a bit frustrating and slightly insulting.
This year the temperament is terrible – they are very pingy and up flying at each inspection. They are building well which is a bonus but also have quite a lot of chalkbrood. Unfortunately I will be requeening this year as they are just not what I was expecting or wanted.
I feel that I was a victim of circumstances but think think more could have been done and at least one replacement queen could have been offered. I think that they were just not mated well and I would caution all to be careful when purchasing on the weather conditions ( I know last summer was awful).
Northumberland Honey –
Dear Ian,
Sorry to read your review. This is the first we’ve heard from you since June last year when you received the queens and on checking the records this was the only order you have made with us, so a single snapshot view of our queens from only one order and only one queen you proport to have successfully introduced.
For clarity there was a 2 day delay due to torrential rain, with your queens scheduled for 20th June and they arrived on 22nd June. This is not a significant delay given variability in weather and the fact we’re breeders and not resellers so do have things like weather and nature to contend with.
We always seek to forge good relationships with our customers and always help where we can. But we cannot help at the time if we don’t hear anything substantial from you for nearly 12 months and the first we hear is a publicly slanderous review. Clearly intended to do harm not covering the full facts.
The only contact we did received was a rather aggressive call that was noted for its nature a couple of days after receiving the queens and said you’d been through the hives only a day after introduction and couldn’t find 2 of the queens.
Sorry you felt insulted by our guidance, but we were only going by industry best practice. We advised against the check backs so soon as it is common knowledge that early interference is linked to higher incidences of rejection of queens.
Sorry that you took offence to this, however our job and product only goes so far, we produce queens, deliver queens, and your role is to successfully introduce them, if you fail at introduction then unfortunately we cannot be held responsible for that.
We advise leaving 2 weeks to allow for build up of the queens pheremones and brood pheromone which reduces chances of delayed rejection especially when introducing bees of different races. Again rather than heeding this advice you assume we say this offensively which we clearly do not. It is simply good practice. You just chose to do something different.
Regarding chalkbrood this is something that is known to be more prevalent in AMM / dark bees, but is something we try to select against, however chalkbrood is usually very minor and is brought on by challenging weather conditions, lack of flow or feed. You never mentioned an issue with chalkbrood before and would suggest this would have shown up last season in your inspections and had this been and issue we would have expected contact at the time. For reference in case it helps or helps anyone else reading this review (no offence meant!) Other compounding factors could be chalk spores being present on equipment, or locally and as such we’d suggest melting out all effected comb and sterilising frames etc. We do not tend to suffer chalk at all, so to hear of this is a surprise.
Really sorry that you felt you should leave a negative review first before contacting us to speak about this or provide any substantial evidence, as mentioned we can only help if we have contact and we would have loved to help, and will still help in anyway you can if you do choose to pick up the phone and speak to us.
We would have been happy to receive the queen back so we could have tested ourselves and try to substantiate any of the claims. But alas that opportunity has been taken away from us.
Best of luck with the beekeeping this season.
jenkinsbrynmair (verified owner) –
Once again, first class service, three queens pre-ordered last season, shipping notice emailed sent the day before the arranged delivery date, queens arrived bang on time, well packaged and in good order. So pleased I went and bought another one the same day and it too arrived bang on time the day after.
I’ve yet to have a problem with these queens – either delivery or their performance once in the hive.
rad.irving (verified owner) –
I needed a new queen for a failed / now queenless slit.
I rang NH Co Ltd and was lucky enough to catch and speak with Luke.
Being a novice bee keeper Luke discussed and gave me very clear and I think good advise. A Northumberland dark queen was available, Luke that day processed the queen and I received the lady just after lunch the next day, she and attendants looked in looked in perfect order. I gave her a drink via a water wet finger slide down the outside of the cage as suggested to me by someone? maybe Luke.
One week later now … I am now waiting another week as advised to interestingly see how my hive is progressing. Thank you so far Luke and Suzie.
Greg Maden (verified owner) –
My queen arrived safe and sound, accepted by the bees upon introduction and opened the tab 24hrs later to release her. On first inspection I found her laying not bothered by my presence. I would definitely buy again.
Ian Faux (verified owner) –
Excellent queens, have ordered several over the last 2 years- calm and productive with good genetic information provided.
Andrew Gourlay (verified owner) –
Fabulous Company!
Fabulous Customer service !
Fabulous Dark Bee received!!
It can’t get any better than this!!!!
I cannot fault the service and attention to detail that has been received from Luke, cannot fault any part of the experience with Northumberland Honey!!!!
Excellent work !
Andrew Gourlay (verified owner) –
Fabulous Company!
Fabulous Customer service !
Fabulous Dark Bee received!!
It can’t get any better than this!!!!
I cannot fault the service and attention to detail that has been received from Luke, cannot fault any part of the experience with Northumberland Honey!!!!
Excellent work !
Andrew Gourlay (verified owner) –
I cannot fault the service and attention to detail that has been received from Luke, cannot fault any part of the experience with Northumberland Honey!!!
ticketybeehoney (verified owner) –
I rarely provide customer service reviews on my purchases, being of an age when a customer expected to receive what was advertised at the price that was advertised and if being delivered, then delivered on the day the retailer had indicated however these days of course you only have to buy a pencil online and you are expected to explain in excruciating detail how this purchase has changed your life.
So it is with the greatest of pleasure that I can state that the 5 AMM Queens that I ordered from Luke & Suzy at The Northumberland Honey Company in December 2025 were delivered on the exact date advertised from the time of purchase 5 months earlier.
The Queen cages arrived via Royal Mail in the most robust cardboard packaging that I have ever had containing Queens sent Royal Mail.
On inspection, each marked Queen was in good health, the attendants attentive and the fondant plug was soft.
As I write this review I am in Queen Introduction Purdah with a week and a half to go before I would even bother to check on each re-queened colony, so I cannot claim as yet that they are exceptional Queens but if they are anything like the rest of The Northumberland Honey Company then they probably will be.