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2022 Italian Queen Mated, and in JZBZ Cages with a candy plug. Pick Up at Store Only in Colorado Springs. We do NOT ship queens. .
PLEASE MAKE SURE WE HAVE A GOOD EMAIL AND PHONE NUMBER FOR YOU.
ALL QUEENS MUST BE PICKED UP WITHIN ONE BUSINESS DAY AFTER ORDER.
In order for you to pick up your queen the next business day, you must place your order before 6 pm. the day prior.
***UPON CHECKOUT: please select IN STORE PICKUP 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 business day after your placed your order.
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 honey bee is thought to originate from the central and upper southern regions of continental Italy and are known for their winter hardiness, rapid spring buildup, and exceptional honey production. They show excellent resistance to tracheal mites and are great comb builders. Queens produced from this breeder are open-mated with all of their stock for genetic diversity and hybrid vigor. Italian brood up quickly in the spring, tend to be low to moderate propolis producers and are excellent honey producers. Extremely gentle bees--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.