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***PRE-ORDER NOW FOR PICKUP BEGINNING SATURDAY, MAY 4TH ***
2024 Italian-Carniolan Cross Queen, Mated, and in California Mini Cages with a candy plug. Pick Up at Store Only in Colorado Springs. We do NOT ship queens. THESE QUEENS ARE NOT MARKED.
PLEASE MAKE SURE WE HAVE A GOOD EMAIL AND PHONE NUMBER FOR YOU.
ALL QUEENS MUST BE PICKED UP WITHIN TWO BUSINESS DAY AFTER ORDER.
In order for you to pick up your queen the next business day, you must place your order before 5:30 pm. the day prior.
***UPON CHECKOUT: please select PICK UP INSTORE and INDICATE THE DATE AND TIME YOU WILL PICK UP YOUR QUEEN (within our business hours).***
All orders are FINAL. There will be a $30 re-stocking fee on unwanted queens that have not left the store. There are NO REFUNDS on queens that have left the store. NO EXCEPTIONS.
We cannot bank queens for you. We cannot guarantee the quality of any queens that we hold for you. You need to pick up your queen no later than the next 48 HOURS after your placed your order AND ON THE DAY YOU INDICATED FOR PICKUP. Pickup dates and times MUST BE WITHIN OUR BUSINESS HOURS.
NOTICE: You cannot install a queen by herself into an empty hive or she will die. You must have some worker bees in order for her to survive. These cages have a candy plug...workers will chew through the candy plug within 2 to 3 days and release your queen; however, you need to check to make sure she has been released. We recommend a queen cage holder to hang your cage at the optimal depth on your frame. WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR QUEEN IS REJECTED OR DIES AFTER YOU LEAVE THE STORE WITH HER.
The Italian-Carniolan bee is a cross mated bee that retains the best traits of both breeds. Italian queens are mated with Carniolan drones to produce a hardy queen bee that passes on the traits of both breeds. Known for their gentleness, these queens are great for beginner beekeepers. They brood up quickly in spring and go in with a smaller cluster for winter. Queens produced from this breeder are open-mated with all of their stock for genetic diversity and vigor. These winter well in Colorado and are great for beginners.
Italian traits:
NOTICE: You cannot install a queen by herself into an empty hive or she will die. You must have some worker bees in order for her to survive.
Preparing Your Hive to Accept Your Queen: In order for a hive to accept a new queen, you must make sure that your hive is queen-less. Queenless means that there isn't a virgin queen in there (which happens after a hive swarms). A hive "in transition" after it has swarmed will need about three weeks for a virgin queen to become mated and begin to lay eggs. Many times, a hive will recognize a queen cell as their queen or a laying worker as their queen and reject a new queen that you introduce. A hive may also be queen-less if the queen, for some reason has become old or injured and has died. Before introducing a new queen, make sure you have removed any virgin queens, laying worker, or queen cells and give them 24 to 48 hours to realize they are queen-less. Hives with hot or Africanized genetics are typically harder to re-queen...try smoking the hive a bit to get rid of old pheromone and use a re-queening frame.