Apis mellifera iberiensis Mated Queen

01 · WHAT A PROVEN LAYER MEANS

The difference from a virgin queen

No newly hatched queen is sent out to see what happens. This one has been mated in a nucleus and held until she starts laying before being selected: by the time she reaches your hive her fertility is demonstrated. She comes marked with the colour of the current year, which is what will tell you two seasons from now whether the queen you are looking at is this one or a daughter of hers.

02 · THE IBERIAN GENETICS

Adapted to what is actually here

Apis mellifera iberiensis is the bee of the peninsula and is adapted to its dry summers and irregular winters: it handles drought well and matches laying to the forage in front of it. Against imported strains, the advantage is not raw yield but that her daughters go on behaving — there is no surprise in the second generation when they cross with the drones of your district.

03 · INTRODUCING HER

With candy, without hurry and without handling

This is where queens are lost. The colony has to be queenless — for some hours at least, better a day — and free of queen cells: go through and take them all out, or they will raise their own and kill yours. Put the closed cage with its candy between two frames of brood, exit upwards, and leave it three or four days without opening the hive. At seven to ten days look for eggs, not for the queen. Never release her straight onto the frames.

04 · WHEN TO REQUEEN

Every one or two years, and sooner if she fails

Requeening is one of the few decisions that change a whole hive: a young queen lays more, holds the colony together better and reduces the swarming urge. It is also the quick route to bringing hygienic behaviour into an apiary. And you do not have to wait for the calendar: a hive with patchy brood, low population or bad temper is a candidate as soon as queens are available.

05 · BEFORE YOU BUY

The minimum order is 5 queens. Shipments leave on Tuesdays only, delivered on Wednesday before 15:00, and only within the Iberian peninsula. An order placed from Thursday to Monday goes out the following Tuesday.