Northumberland Dark Queen Bee | British Black Queen Bee | Mated Queen Bees For Sale

Description

Northumberland Dark Queen Bee | British Black Queen | Mated Queens For Sale

Bred on the Northumberland / Cumbrian border by Northumberland Honey Co. These bees are known as our Northumberland Dark queen bees, after years of trying to select for a good British Black Queen we have bred a Northumberland Dark Queen which we feel performs well. We are fortunate to be working in a remote area with few other beekeepers and a known population of dark bees – Apis mellifera mellifera.

Queen Mother 2023 Line Information

Dark / Black Queen Bee Breeding

Over the years we have been selecting from the best of these bees, to produce a dark bee that works well in the UK climate, selecting bees based on not only their colouration (which may be varied due to open mating) but also selecting amongst these bees for good temperament, low swarming tendancy, good honey production and disease resistance. We now have dark bees which are as disease resistant, and produce a significant honey crop with dark queen mothers having produced over 50Kg of honey in the previous season.

For the 2023 season we are grafting from dark queen mothers who have shown VSH (varroa sensitive and hygienic traits, culled brood removal at 90% within 24 hours and 100% within 48 hours) from 2022 testing a high proportion of the daughters have maintained these traits and we hope this will continue into the traits of the 2023 queens.

Please note, although we do select for colour amongst these dark bees and select for dark queens and bees, it is not our only selection criteria. There may be some slight colour variation amongst them so if you are wanting a queen purely for it’s colouration notwithstanding the other features that are selected for, this queen may not be for you. Our stock is raised from our local dark bee population amongst other genetics we have brought in over the years from other dark bee breeders with first and foremost good disease resistance, honey production and temperament. We do have dark bees which have been genetically tested as over 90% Apis Mellifera Mellifera.

How we raise queens

We graft in Queen Right cell starters and finishers, which stimulates the supercedure impulse for raising cells, which is known to produce a better well fed queen larvae than in a rushed stimulated queenless starter set up. Once the cells are sealed we transfer to an incubtor for the cells to hatch. This ensures that the temperature and humidty during development is exceptionally well controlled and the development of the queen is as near to perfect conditions as can be.

On the day of hatching, the virgin queen is introduced to a mating nuc (we use Apideas in preference). These apideas are situated in one of two queen rearing valleys we have depending on the breeding of the queen we are looking for. These valleys are populated with at least 20 drone rearing colonies to ensure the areas are flooded with our drones.

After 2-4 weeks the apideas are checked for successful mating. Once there is sealed brood the queens are then marked for being available to ship or used in our own colonies.

Availability

These queens will be available from end of May through to September. Earlier weeks become booked very quickly so we advise if interested in these queens that you plan ahead and pre-order in good time.

Generally queens are caged on the same day as posting. A lot of producers will bank queens (ie cage for long periods of time in order to manage stock) we prefer to let queens lay fully up to the point of postage in this way you get a queen which is ready to get laying straight away.

Postage or Collection

• Postage – Queens are only sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery as this is a guaranteed and insured service. It is too risky to send queens in the normal post by first class.
• Collection -if wanting to collect, please select this option, but liase with us via e-mail or phone for a suitable collection time. We can usually supply queens for collection at quite short notice. But nonetheless arrangements need to be made to ensure your queens are available for collection at a given time as we are a working bee farm we need to ensure plans can be made for collection that fit into our beekeeping schedules.